"Poet W. Joe Hoppe is the model of an up-and-coming new millennium poet. He has published numerous chapbooks and cut his teeth performing live poetry in the thriving Austin poetry scene..."

Today's poet is W. Joe Hoppe. I don't have much to say about him, because I wasn't particularly impressed (sorry Joe). But there may be something there for you. He seems to have a humor and also a interesting take on some of the topics of his poetry.

Poems Available Online:

• For Us Toiling Away - Probably Not to Become Rich and Famous
• What Are You Doing This Saturday Night?
• Hairy Eyeball
• Heading West
• Sunday Morning at the Cadillac Ranch
• Hardware

You could say he is a bit of of man's man poet. Writing about old cars and tools. A good portion of his book of poems called Galvanized can be read through the google book search. That all being said, what can you learn from a poet you don't particularly like? There is a really unique way that Hoppe uses language. Of all his poems that I read, the following in my favorite:

For Us Toiling Away
Probably Not to Become Rich and Famous

Then there's times
in our deeply digging
submerged so far that
the domes of our heads arise
from our self proclaimed tunnels
only enough to furrow the earth's surface
like Bugs Bunny
we take a wrong turn at Tucumcari

The rivers of ourselves
not to connect up with bigger rivers
or form deltas or gulfs or well known tides
once we gain the boundless ocean

But manifest as something closer
to the Mighty Okavango
flowing off into the Namib Desert
finally engulfed by surrounding sands

Where just before fading into that wasteland
a jungle oasis crops up
supportive of hippopotami, rhinoceros, babboons,
crocodiles, fish in the middle of the desert
the only elephants for a thousand miles

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What do you think?
What is some of the language you like in this poem?