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At the very beginning when I begin writing a poem I try not to think of the audience or anyone at all except for trying to get at the very center of what is driving that poem. In a way it's like analyzing myself.

Rita Dove

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Rita Dove
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: August 28
Essayist
Poet
Professor
Writer
Akron
Ohio
Rita Frances Dove
Way
Driving
Think
Except
Thinking
Begin
Like
Beginning
Audience
Anyone
Analyzing
Writing
Poem
Trying
Center

More quotes by Rita Dove

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I write short stories, and I wrote a play.
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For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.
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My inspiration comes from everywhere, just walking down the street and I never know where it's going to come from, so I keep a notebook with me at all times and the only criteria for anything making it into that notebook is if it stops me in my tracks for even an instant, if it catches my eye or my ear and I just write it down.
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If I begin writing a poem that means I'm intrigued in some way by whatever it's about and that if I'm not trying to find something new and pushing the envelope in the poem I can't expect my reader to be particularly excited about it either.
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What writing does is to reveal.
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The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.
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Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.
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I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.
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I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive.
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I've always felt that the poems I've written which have historical context are hopefully not just simply plucking something out of history and saying great, let's write about that. In every case what has happened is that I've become fascinated or haunted by something and couldn't shake it.
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Listen how they say your name. If they can't say that right, there's no way they're going to know how to treat you proper, neither.
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I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.
Rita Dove
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There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.
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If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.
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If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers and scientists are keeping society together.
Rita Dove
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I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!
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By making us stop for a moment, poetry gives us an opportunity to think about ourselves as human beings on this planet and what we mean to each other.
Rita Dove
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People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable.
Rita Dove
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I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.
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A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it.
Rita Dove