American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art, and American poetry is not excluded from this. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
Still, language is resilient, and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
American poetry is always about defining oneself individually,claiming one's right to be different and often to break taboos. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
But I don't think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
Poetry is one of the essential structures of civilization - carrying myth, ritual, 'tales of the tribe' and the essence of language. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I think that's what poetry does. It allows people to come together and identify with a common thing that is outside of… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
So, I've never been politically correct, even before that term was available to us, and I have really identified with other people… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I don't like political poetry, and I don't write it. If this question was pointing towards that, I think it is missing… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I had been dreaming a complicated dream about helping poets revise their poems, so that each ending would open like a flower.… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
Because, in fact, women, feminists, do read my poetry, and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
There are rituals not structures for being a poet, drinking too much, taking too many drugs, being a lady chaser, having your… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I think one of the things that language poets are very involved with is getting away from conventional ideas of beauty, because… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
“Uneasy Rider" Falling in love with a mustache is like saying you can fall in love with the way a man polishes… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I'm passing on a tradition of which I am part. There's a long line of poets who went before me, and I'm… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I'm perfectly happy when I look out at an audience and it's all women. I always think it's kind of odd, but… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
PC stuff just lowers the general acceptance of good work and replaces it with bogus poetry that celebrates values that in themselves… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I think I'm a very good reader of poetry, but obviously, like everybody, I have a set of criteria for reading poems,… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
Poems reveal secrets when they are analyzed. The poet's pleasure in finding ingenious ways to enclose her secrets should be matched by… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
I think that great poetry is the most interesting and complex use of the poet's language at that point in history, and… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
My poems are almost all written as Diane. I don't have any problems with that, and if other women choose to identify… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share Image
Learning to live what you're born with is the process, the involvement, the making of a life. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
“Uneasy Rider" Falling in love with a mustache is like saying you can fall in love with the way a man polishes his shoes… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
American poetry is always about defining oneself individually,claiming one's right to be different and often to break taboos. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with reference to… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
I think that's what poetry does. It allows people to come together and identify with a common thing that is outside of themselves, but… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
So, I've never been politically correct, even before that term was available to us, and I have really identified with other people who don't… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
What line breaks add to prose prosody is a connection between eye and ear which emphasizes the nature of the language by ... creating… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
There are rituals not structures for being a poet, drinking too much, taking too many drugs, being a lady chaser, having your nervous breakdown,… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
I write in the first person because I have always wanted to make my life more interesting than it was. — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
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;… — Diane Wakoski Copy Share
