What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world!
I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.
Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.
Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture.
I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.
People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable.
I think one of the things that people tend to forget is that poets do write out of life. It isn't some set piece that then gets put up on the shelf, but that the impetus, the real instigation for poetry is everything that's happening around us.
I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.
It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.
There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry.
Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.
Libraries are where it all begins.
The sound of the mandolin is a very curious sound because it's cheerful and melancholy at the same time, and I think it comes from that shadow string, the double strings.
If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.
I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.
I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing.
The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all of our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now.
Without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not restricted to the arts. Every scientist I have met who has been a success has had to imagine.
In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things.
To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet.
