The most important poets to me personally have been Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, and Langston Hughes, That is not to negate the works of all the other great writers whose work remains truthful and undiluted.  There is confusion that lurks within  some writers own minds to the point that thier wit is left as meaningless. Though they are well acclaimed, how much does a T.S. Elliot confuse rather than enlighten. The measure of greatness for the poet is to what degree you are left to understand the authors emotion or to perhaps be enlightened as to your own. Words that are too much ,too lengthy, and repetitive at best are but distractions to whatever the real intent of the work is to invoke. In that aspect I prefer to be a minimalist, not in the aspect of Haiku, but in the aspect of calling it just like it is while maintaining a respect for eloquence. Their is a strong and clear difference between good english and literature, and super-puffed bullshit. I am currently 5-6 weeks away from the release of my first published work which is titled "Soul of the Spoken Word". It is being published by Eloquent Books and at present I am awaiting delivery of the proof copy so that the work can be signed off on. It is a book of poetry with socail and political commentary written in verse. It is raw, yet eloquent, It's about struggle, love and lost, defeat and resilience, and it's about critical and crucail introspection. The work speaks for itself and by itself. I know this will do nothing more than give you some insight as to what to expect but anything I would say would still fall short. You must accquire and read it and if I have mislead you contact me and I will look into what can be done about that.  If I were to point to a poem that cast a reflection on synopsis, I would borrow from the great Langston Hughes and his poem from his mother "Life hasn't been a Crystal staircase". My life has had moments when the planks on the stairwell were missing, the bannister disjointed with nothing to hold on to; but I've had to keep climbing. I had the love and support of the two best parents God made and because of that I've had a lot of opportunity. I've had a lot of demons as well and the price has been exorbitant. Numerous court cases and four calendar years in Texas pennitentiaries. Despite the opportunity of education and a good mind, when the war is within there is no escape of consequence. The querry of why is often answered by a truthful look in the mirror.