American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did.

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

My poems are almost all written as Diane. I don't have any problems with that, and if other women choose to identify with this, I think that's terrific.

I'm perfectly happy when I look out at an audience and it's all women. I always think it's kind of odd, but then, more women than men, I think, read and write 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.

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

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