Diane Wakoski Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Sometimes the archaism of the language when it's spoken is why we are all in love with the Irish today.”

“American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.”

“American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did.”

“But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.”

“But I don't think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events.”

“High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art, and American poetry is not excluded from this.”

“Because, in fact, women, feminists, do read my poetry, and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I don't care; that's what poetry is supposed to do.”

“From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure into good American poetry, whether the poet is aware of what he is doing or not.”

“I don't like political poetry, and I don't 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.”

“I think I'm a very good reader of poetry, but obviously, like everybody, I have a set of criteria for reading poems, and I'm 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 doesn't work and why.”