“I think I started writing as a young person because I felt a lot of psychic confusion and emotional confusion, and writing was a way to sort it out. You know, to externalize it, sort it out, put it down, look at it, and hopefully it would become clearer.” WayWritingLooksPersonsYoungFeltEmotionalConfusionHopefullyPsychics Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“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
“Poetry is a really helpful instrument. It's so physical; the musicality becomes a sort of expression of the body. The mind is there too, in the formal aspects of the poem. The emotions are there in the way the senses gather things into the poem.” WayMindBodyEmotionExpressionAspectInstrumentsSensesHelpfulPoetry IsFormalMusicality Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“Poetry is one of the most full ways of discovering what it feels like to be a human being in this particular moment, in this particular set of concerns. It's all about discovery.” WayFeelsHumansMomentsHuman BeingsParticularDiscoveryConcernPoetry IsDiscovering Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I'm always doing poems from a place of not-knowing, a place of ignorance in a way.” WayKnowingIgnoranceNot Knowing 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
“Bringing science into poetry is one way of acknowledging some of the richest stuff that is in my cultural moment.” WayMomentsStuffOne WayPoetry Is 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 had wanted for so many years to feel that writing really was at the center of my life, not something I did in my spare time. So the writing and teaching feel in some way to be one thing - the personal engagement and the social engagement good partners.” WayFeelsWritingYearsWantedSocialOne ThingTeachingPartnersEngagementSparesSpare Time Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
