Only after my father's death could I speak my own individual truths about him. In a sense, I had to turn him into a character, a figure I could control through language. — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
When poets die, other poets take it personally, almost as an affront. A lot of us "left behind" are thinking that poetry is the one thing keeping us alive and present, so what does it mean when one of our… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
I write a lot, and then forget what I've written, and then come back to it and say, "Not bad, I should do something… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
I'm educating myself more about world poetry. I know a lot about contemporary American poetry, so I felt I needed to learn more about… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
Editing is work, and it's hard to do while working on one's own writing. — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
I lived a life I knew I had to hide My father's edicts resolutely grim. — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
Young poets worry that their experiences - whether urban or rural, immigrant or native, small town, suburb, or big city - aren't worthy of… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
It's fun to see someone grow as a writer, moving from their first workshopped poems to publishing their earliest poems to having a book… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
I think that the people who really accomplish things in this world have to have a little bit of crazy in them. — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
Part of elegy is confrontation - not just with the idea of death, but with the person who has died. — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
I find it hard to write poems in reaction to world/national events unless there's a way in that's so evident to me that I… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
I like when a poem ends on its "receipts," meaning it gives me something tactile or tangible to dwell on as I exit the… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
Poetry is such an ancient art, and I consider myself young within that art. — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
I write to be recorder, observer, participant, and sometimes, even judge. I want to engage the world as I see it with my whole… — Allison Joseph Copy Share Image
