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Quote by Matthea Harvey

“I think of poetry as a very inclusive term. Still, it's interesting that people want to make the distinction. I love the magazine Double Room for that reason (contributors have to write about their ideas on the prose poem/flash fiction).”

Quote by Matthea Harvey

Author

Matthea Harvey is an American poet, born on September 3, 1973. Her work is known for its unique style and rich imagination, often blending poetry, music, and theatrical elements. more

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“Recently, while I was in England, I saw a documentary on the BBC about the border between India and Pakistan at Wagah. When the border closes each evening around six o' clock, the soldiers on each side do these amazing high-stepping peacock march-offs (like a dance-off). The displays are almost identical on each side and thousands gather to watch them. Though they're patrolling along their separate borders, what comes across is how similar they are.”

Sides Watches Saws Six India England Soldier Evening Clock Borders March Display Documentaries Pakistan Identical Peacock India And Pakistan Patrolling

Author:Matthea Harvey

“Whether you're talking about political borders or aesthetic divisions (and clearly, the political ones have much more tragic consequences), it seems like once they are created, we want to patrol them, enforce them.”

Want Seems Political Talking Consequence Borders Tragic Division Aesthetic

Author:Matthea Harvey

“I grew up spending time at my grandmother's farm in Germany and she lived a few kilometers away from the border between east and west Germany. It was so strange that roads which used to connect two towns now ended in the middle.”

Two Used Middle Strange Grew Grew Up Towns West Spending East Borders Germany Grandmother Farms My Grandmother Spending Time East And West West Germany

Author:Matthea Harvey

“I'm all over my poems, even if their relation to my everyday life is that of dream to reality.”

Ifs Dream Reality Life Is Relation Everyday Everyday Life

Author:Matthea Harvey

“Poems can't help but be personal. Mine are certainly an accurate blueprint of the things I think about, if not a record of my daily life.”

Ifs Thinking Helping Records Mines Daily Life Accurate Blueprints

Author:Matthea Harvey

“As a reader I don't distinguish between confessional and non-confessional work. After all, how do we even know that certain "I" poems are confessional? It's a tricky business, this correlating of the speaker and the poet.”

Knows Certain Poet Reader Speakers Tricky

Author:Matthea Harvey

“If I begin a poem, "I am a donkey," reason kicks in and says, "She is taking on the persona of a donkey." But if I write, "I have taken so many drugs I can't see my feet," the tendency is to take that as a confession on the part of the poet. Maybe that doesn't matter. I'd almost prefer for it to be the other way round.”

Ifs Way Writing I Can Matter Reason Taken Feet Poet Drug Rounds Tendencies Kicks Confession Persona Donkey

Author:Matthea Harvey

“Some of my favorite poems are "confessional" poems written in the voices of aliens ("Southbound on the Freeway" by May Swenson" and "Report from the Surface" by Anthony McCann), sheep ("Snow Line" by John Berryman) or a yak ("The Only Yak in Batesville, Virginia" by Oni Buchanan).”

May Voice Lines Written My Favorite Surface Snow Aliens Reports Sheep Virginia Freeways Yaks

Author:Matthea Harvey

“"Confessional poetry" is another one of those labels. It goes in and out of fashion.”

Fashion Labels Poetry Is

Author:Matthea Harvey

“I suppose it's useful in designating writing that tends to come from personal experience, work that delineates an "I," but it's a loose lasso, one which may rope certain poems by one poet and not others.”

Writing May Certain Poet Rope Personal Experiences

Author:Matthea Harvey