Where can I find a literary agent?

For a poet this question is more pertinent than to other bloggers who confine their writing to online fora. I have entered a few competitions since I stopped work but I haven't propelled my skills into the worlds of enterprise and commerce, despite my efforts.

That aside, I wanted to know the most successful literary agents. And then on the same Writing Tip Oasis I found a list of top Australian literary agencies so I'll be bookmarking that.
The Directory of Literary Agents wisely make their determination on the best by looking at the categories in which they excel. While a longer list suggests that there are inclusions and rankings that help tell the story, not available to the frustrated author who sticks to the top ten:

• Robert Gottlieb (Trident Media Group)
• Marly Rusoff (Marly Russoff & Associates)
• Russell Galan (Scovil Galan Ghosh Literary Agency)
• Kimberly Whalen (The Whalen Agency)
• Celeste Fine (Sterling Lord Literistic)
• Jenny Bent (The Bent Agency)
• Scott Miller (Trident Media Group)
• Larry Weissman (Larry Weissman Literary)
• Frank Weimann (Folio Literary Management)
• Stephen Hanselman (LevelFiveMedia) 
• Daniel Lazar (Writers House) - since Trident Media Group picks up two mentions

If I was tasked with compiling a list from scratch, I would look at things like the advance paid to an author. From a publisher's perspective, one might be kindly disposed to a proposal from Carlo Collodi's agent since Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino has sold more than 80 million copies.

This is not to downplay the fact that some literary agents are also going to be a better suit to someone writing about welders and others to the author of a book whose plot revolves around the hay shortages during the drought.
We might look to a literary agent who has connections to this publisher who like to feature claypans in their books and that's what you can write well on.
I suspect though that it would be easier to use the broad categories; picking Mr Gottlieb for his expertise in promoting books in the popular 'fiction: thriller' category.