“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.” ThinkingFirstsMatterYoungDeathFallEasyConsciousnessStepsBalanceWeightScalesLife And DeathGravityUnthinkable Book:Temporary Homelands Source: Temporary Homelands
“I think you have to live inside your contradictions and find a way to accept that that's the human condition - to be forced to live in contradiction.” ThinkingWayHumansAcceptingConditionsContradictionHuman Condition Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“A lot of times students will come up to me and say, "Well, I can't write because I don't know what I think about such-and-such." And I say, "That's why you have to write." You don't wait until you know, because then who cares - it's static.” ThinkingKnowsWritingWellsI CanCareWaitingStudentsCome UpWho CaresStatic Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I'm really interested in culture because it is such a powerful human force, particularly in America where we think it's all about the individual.” ThinkingHumansAmericaCultureIndividualForcePowerful Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I'm interested in thinking about how are we contributing to the culture, what we can write that might help us deepen the culture, make us more reflective, make us more empathetic, make us feel our connectedness in other ways.” ThinkingWayFeelsWritingHelpingMightCultureContributingConnectednessEmpathetic Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I'm just really interested in the interface of the individual with the collective. I think that's where the arts live.” ThinkingArtIndividualCollectivesInterfaces Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“Sometimes it gets talked about as if life is all about the individual, and I don't think it is. I'm really interested in what writing can contribute to a kind of cultural intelligence.” IfsThinkingWritingKindSometimesLife IsIndividual Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I do think environmental writers need to be forward thinking, not just lamenting our losses. We do need to lament; in some ways it's important to be the vessels for grief for all that's being lost on our planet. But we also need to be forward thinking.” ThinkingWayNeedsImportantLostLossGriefPlanetsEnvironmentalVesselOur PlanetLamentForward Thinking Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I don't want people to write programmatic environmental poems, but I think sustainability should become deeply a part of the consciousness of poetry - an impulse toward compassion, empathy, and social justice.” PeopleThinkingWantShouldWritingSocialJusticeConsciousnessCompassionEmpathySocial JusticeEnvironmentalImpulseSustainability Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“As poets, we don't accept oppression; we are about a freedom of spirit, or whatever you want to call it. I think environmental concerns have to go to the deep place, so we speak from a place of great empathy for the planet - for the disadvantaged people, animals, places, cultures.” PeopleThinkingWantSpiritCultureSpeakAnimalAcceptingPlanetsPoetEmpathyConcernEnvironmentalOppressionDisadvantaged Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I do think that the long poem speaks for an inner need for continuity. We live in a time of so many losses, disruptions, and distractions, that the need for a sense of the ongoing is quite real. The long poem is very satisfying in offering the psyche a model of coherence.” ThinkingNeedsLongRealSpeakLossModelsSatisfyingDistractionOfferingOngoingContinuityDisruptionCoherence Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
