Yes, really, shouldn't he be reading poetry if he wants to write it? Louise Gluck is a current poet and fantastic at precision and imagery in the service of metaphysics. I bet he wants boys, though. Robert Frost? Maybe even Billy Collins? I heard Tony Hoagland do a wonderful reading once. Oh, how about the 180 project (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/p180-list.html)? Yes, here's Hoagland:
Maxine, back from a weekend with her boyfriend, smiles like a big cat and says that she's a conjugated verb. She's been doing the direct object with a second person pronoun named Phil, and when she walks into the room, everybody turns:
no subject
Maxine, back from a weekend with her boyfriend,
smiles like a big cat and says
that she's a conjugated verb.
She's been doing the direct object
with a second person pronoun named Phil,
and when she walks into the room,
everybody turns:
[etc]