Diane Wakoski

Poetry is the art of saying what you mean but disguising it.

— Diane Wakoski

Learning to live what you're born with is the process, the involvement, the making of a life.

— Diane Wakoski

“Uneasy Rider" Falling in love with a mustache is like saying you can fall in love with the way a man polishes…

— Diane Wakoski

From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus…

— Diane Wakoski

American poetry is always about defining oneself individually,claiming one's right to be different and often to break taboos.

— Diane Wakoski

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

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

— Diane Wakoski

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

I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.

— Diane Wakoski

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

What line breaks add to prose prosody is a connection between eye and ear which emphasizes the nature of the language by…

— Diane Wakoski

I am not political as a person.

— Diane Wakoski

There are rituals not structures for being a poet, drinking too much, taking too many drugs, being a lady chaser, having your…

— Diane Wakoski

I write in the first person because I have always wanted to make my life more interesting than it was.

— Diane Wakoski

Because, in fact, women, feminists, do read my poetry, and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I…

— Diane Wakoski

Still, language is resilient, and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground.

— Diane Wakoski

PC stuff just lowers the general acceptance of good work and replaces it with bogus poetry that celebrates values that in themselves…

— Diane Wakoski

“It was hard for them to accuse their wives of infidelity when their rival was an invisible man.”

— Diane Wakoski

Poetry is one of the essential structures of civilization - carrying myth, ritual, 'tales of the tribe' and the essence of language.

— Diane Wakoski

I think one of the things that language poets are very involved with is getting away from conventional ideas of beauty, because…

— Diane Wakoski

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

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

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

I do not read newspapers. I do not watch television. I am not interested in current events, although I will occasionally discuss…

— Diane Wakoski

The best young writers are convinced they need blurbs from famous writers before an editor will even read the first page of…

— Diane Wakoski