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 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 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