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Rita Dove

Rita Dove Books

Poet

Selected poems

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“To me, a poem is almost like someone whispering to another person, or you hear the whispering in your head. I hope with my own poems that the reader feels a connection, soul to soul, that'll help us all feel a little less alone on the planet. And it does have the power to direct change. A writer can make the word 'dark' be something positive. You can relieve a word like 'hysterical' of its misogynistic implications. You can make the language your own. That's what poetry is about.”

FeelsLittlesPersonsDoeSoulHelpingLanguageDarkMy OwnPlanetsReaderDirectConnectionsPoetry IsImplicationsWhisperingHysterical
Author:Rita Dove
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“We tend to be so bombarded with information, and we move so quickly, that there's a tendency to treat everything on the surface level and process things quickly. This is antithetical to the kind of openness and perception you have to have to be receptive to poetry.poetry seems to exist in a parallel universe outside daily life in America.”

KindSeemsAmericaMovingPoetryUniverseProcessLevelsInformationPoetPerceptionTreatsSurfaceTendenciesDaily LifeOpennessParallelsReceptiveParallel UniverseBombarded
Author:Rita Dove
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“My best times are midnight to six actually. I'll leaf through my notebooks and if something catches my eye and I feel like I want to transfer it from the notebook to the page, I do, and then comes this very strange process which is difficult to describe in that I'll write until I get stuck or I can't go any further or I'm boring myself or whatever and then I might go to another poem.”

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Author:Rita Dove
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“If the poem is so moving that even if you have no experience in that particular setting be it 1920's Harlem let's say. You still are so moved that you can put yourself in that position. That means that the writer has managed to go beyond the personal and touch the humanity in all of us and it's really a blast to read it because I realize how that this does hold true for the truly great poems.”

IfsMeanDoeStillsMovingHumanityRealizingPositionParticularMovedSettingSettingsBlastHarlem
Author:Rita Dove
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“I never think of my audience when I write a poem. I try to write out of whatever is haunting me; in order for a poem to feel authentic, I have to feel I'm treading on very dangerous ground, which can mean that the resulting revelations may prove hurtful to other people. The time for thinking about that kind of guilt or any collective sense of responsibility, however, occurs much later in the creative process, after the poem is finished.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsWritingTryingKindMayMeanOrderProcessResponsibilityAudienceCreativeDangerousProveGuiltFinishedRevelationsCollectivesCreative ProcessHauntingHurtfulSense Of ResponsibilityTreading
Author:Rita Dove
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“If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can’t imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America’s alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart — and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings.”

IfsKnowsWorldFeelsHeartMeanChildrenPersonsMadeDifferentFeelingsAmericaYoungSpeakVoiceDarknessKnow HowGrowing UpGreaterGrowingImagineEmpowermentOur ChildrenDareNeighborhoodNot AloneDifferent WorldsSinisterStumblingSpeak From The Heart
Author:Rita Dove
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“From the time I began to read, as a child, I loved to feel their heft in my hand and the warm spot caused by their intimate weight in my lap; I loved the crisp whisper of a page turning, the musky odor of old paper and the sharp inky whiff of new pages. Leather bindings sent me into ecstasy. I even loved to gaze at a closed book and daydream about the possibilities inside.”

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Book:Selected poems
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“The First Book: Go ahead, it won't bite. Well... maybe a little. More a nip, like. A tingle. It's pleasurable, really. You see, it keeps on opening. You may fall in. Sure, it's hard to get started; remember learning to use knife and fork? Dig in: you'll never reach bottom. It's not like it's the end of the world -- just the world as you think you know it.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldFirstsWellsMayLittlesBookEndsHardUseRememberFallBottomOpeningBitesKnivesEnd Of The WorldForksYou Think You Know
Author:Rita Dove
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