Logo
Category

Poetry

And I know Im supposed to feel guilty for wanting people to buy my books… and books in general? Novels and poetry, they belong to the realm of art. How dirty of us to try to hawk art! But, after a decade of hand-wringing and apologies, I cant quite muster the guilt anymore. – Julianna Baggott

But I dont think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events. – Diane Wakoski

Because, in fact, women, feminists, do read my poetry, and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I dont care thats what poetry is supposed to do. – Diane Wakoski

Im perfectly happy when I look out at an audience and its all women. I always think its kind of odd, but then, more women than men, I think, read and write poetry. – Diane Wakoski

Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of ones geographic landscape, sometimes out of ones cultural myths, and often with reference to gender and race or ethnic origins. – Diane Wakoski

I dont like political poetry, and I dont write it. If this question was pointing towards that, I think it is missing the point of the American tradition, which is always apolitical, even when the poetry comes out of politically active writers. – Diane Wakoski

I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing voice in poetry. It started for me lyrically in Shakespeares sonnets. – Diane Wakoski

I think Im a very good reader of poetry, but obviously, like everybody, I have a set of criteria for reading poems, and Im not shy about presenting them, so if people ask for my critical response to a poem, I tell them what works and why, and what doesnt work and why. – Diane Wakoski

I think that great poetry is the most interesting and complex use of the poets language at that point in history, and so its even more exciting when you read a poet like Yeats, almost 100 years old now, and you think that perhaps no one can really top that. – Diane Wakoski

I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poets personality. – Mark Strand

I certainly cant speak for all cultures or all societies, but its clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. Its not part of the cultural mainstream. – Mark Strand

I published, privately, a collection of my serious poetry I had written over the years. I only published 50 copies, which I gave to friends, in a special deluxe edition. It was ridiculously expensive but Im glad that I did it. – Tom Glazer

Well, the great thing for me about poetry is that in good poems the dislocation of words, that is to say, the distance between what they say theyre saying and what they are actually saying is at its greatest. – Harry Mathews

My next project is to get back to that. Actually, to learn how to write poetry. Im not kidding. – Harry Mathews

Even the people who have had success and made money writing these books of fiction seem to feel the need to pretend its no big deal, or part of a natural progression from poetry to fiction, but often its really just about the money, the perceived prestige. – George Murray

Humour is a fine line to walk in poetry, as in fiction. I just think its harder to write. Its harder to keep the respect of the reader too. – George Murray

Ive often entertained paranoid suspicions about my fridge and what its been doing to my poetry when Im not looking, but I never even considered that my fan was thinking about me. – George Murray

Ive always written. When I was in school, the only teacher who ever liked me was my creative writing teacher. I used to enter poetry competitions, and I dont think I ever lost one. So I had the idea for a while of being some kind of poet. – Justin Townes Earle

I heard Nirvana, and discovered that songs could be like poetry, but a little bit more refined: you didnt have to have 20 verses to get your point across. – Justin Townes Earle

Most people cant tell now who wrote what. I like that blurring of identities within the band. because it becomes a unified thing that cant be related to other forms of historical poetry. – Thurston Moore