62 Quotes by Diane Wakoski

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

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

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 gender and race or ethnic origins.

I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing voice in poetry. It started for me lyrically in Shakespeare's sonnets.

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

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

Other people have noticed more of an evolution than I have and so I'll try to tell you where I'm coming from and also relate it to what I think other people perceive.

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.