“The busybody (banned as sexist, demeaning to older women) who lives next door called my daughter a tomboy (banned as sexist) when she climbed the jungle (banned; replaced with "rain forest") gym. Then she had the nerve to call her an egghead and a bookworm (both banned as offensive; replaced with "intellectual") because she read fairy (banned because suggests homosexuality; replace with "elf") tales. I'm tired of the Language Police turning a deaf ear (banned as handicapism) to my complaints. I'm no Pollyanna (banned as sexist) and will not accept any lame (banned as offensive; replace with "walks with a cane") excuses at this time. If Alanis Morrissette can play God (banned) in Dogma (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "Doctrine" or "Belief"), why can't my daughter play stickball (banned as regional or ethnic bias) on boy's night out (banned as sexist)? Why can't she build a snowman (banned, replace with "snow person") without that fanatic (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "believer," "follower," or "adherent") next door telling her she's going to hell (banned; replaced with "heck" or "darn")? Do you really think this is what the Founding Fathers (banned as sexist; replace with "the Founders" or "the Framers") had in mind? That we can't even enjoy our Devil (banned)-ed ham sandwiches in peace? I say put a stop to this cult (banned as ethnocentric) of PC old wives' tales (banned as sexist; replace with "folk wisdom") and extremist (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "believer," "follower," or "adherent") conservative duffers (banned as demeaning to older men). As an heiress (banned as sexist; replace with "heir") to the first amendment, I feel that only a heretic (use with caution when comparing religions) would try to stop American vernacular from flourishing in all its inspirational (banned as patronizing when referring to a person with disabilities) splendor.” HumorPoetry Author:Denise Duhamel
“I believe it's impossible to write good poetry without reading. Reading poetry goes straight to my psyche and makes me want to write. I meet the muse in the poems of others and invite her to my poems. I see over and over again, in different ways, what is possible, how the perimeters of poetry are expanding and making way for new forms.” WayWantWritingBelieveDifferentFormReadingI BelieveImpossibleDifferent WaysInvitesMuseExpandingReading PoetryGood PoetryPerimeter Author:Denise Duhamel
“I don't know if there are topics that I unconsciously avoid, but as soon as they pop up in my writing, I try to take on those topics, whether or not I publish the poems.” IfsKnowsWritingTryingPopsTopicsPublish Author:Denise Duhamel
“Though it does seem like I have written an immense amount of work, over the years I have pushed the pause button. I have poems that I haven't sent out for publication, mostly based on political/social issues.” YearsDoeSeemsPoliticalSocialIssuesWrittenHavensAmountImmenseButtonsPausesSocial IssuesPublicationPause Button Author:Denise Duhamel
“Not that a poem can "hurt" someone the same way a physical blow can or even a mean remark can...I just felt unsure that my tone would be taken the right way and/or unsure of my own writing, that I couldn't maintain the tone I wanted.” WayWritingMeanWould BeWantedFeltHurtMy OwnTakenBlowToneRight WayRemarksUnsureHurts Someone Author:Denise Duhamel
“I had no idea, when I was writing early on, that my poems would be published or read by anyone, never mind people I knew or would meet. I just wrote urgently - naïvely, I suppose, looking back.” PeopleWritingMindIdeasWould BeNo IdeaLooking Back Author:Denise Duhamel
“I still write what I need to write - but I can't deny that something has changed when I think about sending work out. Maybe it's just growing older and feeling more responsible to the world.” ThinkingWorldNeedsWritingStillsI CanFeelingsGrowingChangedResponsibleWork OutDenyGrowing OldGrowing OlderThings Have Changed Author:Denise Duhamel
“I started wanting desperately to say something, to make a point, to be heard - and I still feel that way. Free verse served me best when I embarked on poetry.” WayFeelsStillsHeardVersesFree Verse Author:Denise Duhamel
“Over the years, I became more and more interested in the forms and techniques in which things could be said.” YearsSaidFormTechnique Author:Denise Duhamel
“In addition to writing in received forms, I have also had fun making up forms - Möbius strips and visual poems, particularly.” WritingFormFunVisualsMaking UpHad Fun Author:Denise Duhamel
“What has stayed true in my life as a writer is my dedication to writing - I try to write every day, no matter what - and the joy that writing has given me.” WritingTryingMatterJoyGivenNo Matter WhatDedication Author:Denise Duhamel
“I know writers for whom the act of writing is a necessary chore. They suffer to write great work. I am very lucky that for me writing is a delight.” KnowsWritingSufferingLuckyDelightGreat WorkChores Author:Denise Duhamel
“As a teenager, I loved acting, painting, photography, and making films with my friend's Super 8 camera. But I always loved writing the best. I chose writing even before I knew poetry was available to me.” WritingFilmActingPaintingPhotographyMy FriendsCamerasAvailableTeenager Author:Denise Duhamel
“I always wanted to be some kind of writer - I wrote plays and songs and "books" before I realized living and breathing people still wrote poems.” PeopleKindStillsBookPlayWantedSongI RealizedBreathing Author:Denise Duhamel
“I also could see myself as a stand-up comedian, a fashion designer (for people of all sizes), a hairdresser, an earnest and eventually burnt-out politician, or the owner of a small bistro. But I fear that, without poetry, I would have simply been going through the motions.” PeopleFashionPoliticianSizeComedianDesignerOwnersEarnestFashion DesignerHairdresserStand Up ComedianBurnt OutBistro Author:Denise Duhamel
“Jean Valentine and Jane Cooper were my professors at Sarah Lawrence College - and they were uncompromised in their art. They gave me models of how to live one's life as a poet.” ArtCollegePoetModelsProfessorsValentineJane Author:Denise Duhamel
“The spoken word community was significant in making me want to write accessible and urgent poems. Bob Holman, in particular, was an impressive figure.” WantWritingCommunityFiguresParticularSignificantBobUrgentImpressiveSpoken Word Author:Denise Duhamel
“Writing is performative - and while, yes, the words in essence will be there "forever," poems are often about ecstatic moments rather than trying to pin down a particular truth of an event.” WritingTryingMomentsForeverEventsParticularEssencePinsEcstatic Author:Denise Duhamel
“The "truth" is the poem itself. Just because someone writes a poem about a feeling she has does not mean that the feeling will stay forever. The truth of the emotion of the poem remains, even if the particular truth of the poet changes.” IfsWritingMeanDoeFeelingsEmotionForeverParticularPoetTruth IsRemains Author:Denise Duhamel
“My advice to my younger self would have been, "Chill. Concentrate on the poems. Everything else will work itself out."” Has BeensSelfAdviceChillYounger Self Author:Denise Duhamel
“While poetry was less professionalized than it is now, I still had this urge to win prizes and see my work in magazines, to get an "A," as though poetry could be graded. I wish I had been more patient and less frantic about getting published.” StillsWinningWishPatientMagazinesUrgesPrizeFrantic Author:Denise Duhamel
“Unlike Woody Allen, I would be happy to be part of any (poetry) club that would have me.” Would BeClubsWoody Author:Denise Duhamel
“I have no idea, actually, where I fit in, in terms of poetry camps. At AWP conferences, I have been on panels about humor, collaboration, visual poetry, confessional poetry, gender, and the body, as well as tributes to Edward Field and Albert Goldbarth. I felt at home on all of them - most poets straddle more than one school.” WellsHas BeensIdeasHomeBodySchoolFeltTermFieldsPoetFitGenderNo IdeaVisualsCollaborationCampsConferencesTribute Author:Denise Duhamel
“If you are my friend and say to me, "Please don't write about this," I won't.” IfsWritingPleaseMy Friends Author:Denise Duhamel
“After my marriage ended, I had an urge to skip that part of my life completely in terms of poetry, not publish anything at all about it.” TermUrgesPublishSkip Author:Denise Duhamel
“I love going to movie theaters, even in the era of movies on-demand and Netflix. When you are in a movie theater, no one can reach you by phone or other means.” MeanDemandTheaterPhonesErasMovie TheaterNetflix Author:Denise Duhamel
“In almost every book I've written, there is a reference to a movie - legendary films, actors and actresses, and forgotten made-for-TV movies. The leaps poems make are not unlike the cuts in a film. The miniature and avant-garde prose poets have perhaps the most obvious ties to film, as a prose poem in its shape is not unlike a movie screen.” MadeBookFilmActorsCuttingWrittenPoetTvsShapesForgottenObviousActressesScreensTiesProseLeapLegendaryAvant GardeMiniaturesActors And ActressesFilm Actors Author:Denise Duhamel
“Visual media is the dominant art form in our present day culture, whereas poetry is, at best, a proxy. Yet poetry and film are both "dream factories."” ArtDreamFilmFormCultureMediaVisualsPoetry IsFactoriesDominantPresent DayProxy Author:Denise Duhamel
“I began to think about the extent to which nude and semi-nude female bodies are commonplace in our present day culture and how young girls might be affected. I wondered if, at some point, this bombardment of images could possibly get boring and that concealing - rather than revealing - would awaken sexual desire. I don't think that will ever be the case, of course, but I was intrigued to write a poem in which dressing was just as erotic as undressing.” IfsThinkingWritingBodyMightYoungDesireCultureGirlCoursesCasesFemaleBoringAffectedDressingsEroticRevealingCommonplaceIntriguedPresent DayConcealingFemale BodySexual DesireUndressing Author:Denise Duhamel
“I am interested in the confines of the page and busting through/off the page as well. A writer must let go of the line when writing prose poems, which brings its own pleasures.” WritingWellsLinesPleasureLetting GoPagesProseBusting Author:Denise Duhamel
“The "biggest" poems I ever made are based on the psychological principal of the "Johari Window:" what the self freely shares with others; what the self hides from others; what others hide from the self; and what is unknown to the self and others.” MadeSelfShareWindowPsychologicalPrincipal Author:Denise Duhamel
“I am open to squeezing in whatever I can in this wonderful life. Instead of asking, "Is that all there is?" I seem, lately, to be always saying, "Wow!"” I CanSeemsWonderfulAskingWowWonderful LifeSqueezing Author:Denise Duhamel
