Hong Kong witnessed economical bloom in the 1970s, when the colonial government launched a series of major infrastructural and political reforms. The rise of social movements and student movements in the early 70s hastened the speed of changes. During this period, many Hong Kong poets made use of local matters as subjects for poetical creation, including their intimate experience of the rapid modernization of the city. At that time there were three major orientations in Hong Kong poetry. Those who wrote for leftist newspapers and magazines cared especially about sufferings of the lower classes, and their poetical style can be considered "raw realism." Those affiliated with the journal Poetry, on the other hand, paid great attention to artistic skills, drew inspirations from renowned Chinese and Western poems, and were much influenced by Yu Kwang Chung's "neo-classicism." However, those associated with the literary supplements and journals edited by Leung Ping-kwan (1949-2013) and like-minded editors objected to both direct social criticism and ornate poetical language, opting to adopt simple Chinese to write about their concrete life experiences and subtle personal feelings. This article examines the peculiar features of Hong Kong urban poetry in the 1970s, using the works of three major poets, namely, Shu Xiangcheng (1921-1999), Ji Hun (1946- ) and Leung Ping-kwan as prime examples with a view to introducing the different facets of this kind of poetry. Shu was one of the most prolific realist poets, famous for his use of short poems to expose various social problems and for his powerful satirical effects. Ji Hun's poems on urban modernity were largely realist contentwise but showed meticulous attention to the use of figures and allusions; he was notable for his experiment in appropriating the classical Chinese poetical language to dramatically depict hybrid and uneven city developments, and for the profound historical consciousness in his works. Finally, Leung Ping-kwan promoted a kind of "daily life" poetry based on calm and patient observations, trying to discover aesthetic qualities in mundane objects and happenings. The works of these three poets represent respectively the highest achievements of the three loose groups of poets mentioned above so far as Hong Kong urban poetry in the 1970s is concerned