“As for the differences between audio and the printed page, the sonic aspects of poetry are important to me. I read my poems aloud to myself as I'm composing them. And I enjoy reading to an audience. I think people get tone more easily when they hear a writer read her work. Some people have told me they hear more humor in my poems at a live reading than when they see them on the page. I think that may be a matter of pacing. On the other hand, I've listened to a lot of poetry readings and I know how much you can miss. If you stop to really register one line, you miss the next three or so.” PeopleThinkingImportantReadingEnjoyAudienceMissingPrintedOne Line Author:Rae Armantrout
“People probably long for something genuinely personal in a society where the personal is often indistinguishable from the "personalized." Maybe the poetry audience member is searching for his or her own "personal space" and they expect the poet to be a sort of avatar of the private life. But that sort of representation is distasteful to me. Asking a poet to represent the personal life is, paradoxically, to turn the poet into something other than a person.” PeopleLongAudiencePoetRepresentationPersonal LifeDistastefulPersonal Space Author:Rae Armantrout
“Like most of my poems, 'Lie' has several sources: I read a very troubling book called The Sixth Extinction. I took note of the way people, including me, enjoy talking knowledgeably about how the world will end. I drove to Tucson and saw the desert flowering on either side of the road. And I glanced at my spam to see what people wanted to sell me these days.” PeopleWorldWayBookEndsWantedLyingEnjoySidesTalkingSawsSourceSellsNotesIncludingDesertThese DaysExtinctionFloweringSpamTucson Author:Rae Armantrout
