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Poetry can do a lot of things to people. I mean it can improve your imagination. It can take you to new places. It can give you this incredible form o...more

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I think more influential than Emily Dickinson or Coleridge or Wordsworth on my imagination were Warner Brothers, Merrie Melodies, and Loony Tunes cart...more

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When I was a young man, I understood that poetry was two things - it was difficult to understand, but you could understand that the poet was miserable...more

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When I became poet laureate, I was in a slightly uncomfortable position because I think a lot of poetry isn't worth reading.

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People think of poetry as a school subject... Poetry is very frustrating to students because they don't have a taste for ambiguity, for one thing. Tha...more

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I don't think anybody reads a book of poetry front to back. Editors and reviewers only. I don't think anybody else does.

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Humor, for me, is really a gate of departure. It's a way of enticing a reader into a poem so that less funny things can take place later. It really is...more