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.
Rita DoveIf our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they canโt imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in Americaโs alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart โ and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings.
Rita DoveIf the poem is so moving that even if you have no experience in that particular setting be it 1920's Harlem let's say. You still are so moved that you can put yourself in that position. That means that the writer has managed to go beyond the personal and touch the humanity in all of us and it's really a blast to read it because I realize how that this does hold true for the truly great poems.
Rita DoveIn fact, sometimes traveling the world is a way of not writing a poem, but it's the quality of experience. It's being able to experience something and when you begin to write about it be able to apply the tools that you need for writing.
Rita DoveAs an African-American, as a woman I think that I've been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important.
Rita Dove