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
PC stuff just lowers the general acceptance of good work and replaces it with bogus poetry that celebrates values that in themselves are probably quite worthy. – 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
American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet. – Diane Wakoski
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things. – T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent, 1919