From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure into good American poetry, whether the poet is aware of what he is doing or not.

One, I have a wonderful publisher, Black Sparrow Press; as long as they exist, they will keep me in print. And they claim they sell very respectable numbers of my books, so I guess, and it's true, every place I go, my books are in libraries and on bookshelves.

But I don't think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events.

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

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

I am not political as a person.

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