What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
How far back should I go? In the 1990s, I was into Alden Nowlan, John Thompson and Lowell, Plath, Sexton—I almost got a Sylvia Plath tattoo. I am thankful I did not. I go back to Elizabeth Bishop. And Emily Dickinson. I feel intimately attached to them and to Nowlan and Lowell. Currently I’m learning from Hieu Mihn Nguyen, Lucy Brock-Broido, Kay Ryan, Dorothea Lasky, Alice Oswald, and Marge Piercy. Their books have been on my desk the last two years. Can I also add that Joy Williams, the story writer, is essential to me? I wrote a love poem about meeting her at the Cloisters in NYC. A girl can dream!
No comments:
Post a Comment