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Quote by 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.”

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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“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

“People "confess" can be wildly different. I might go into the confessional and say, "Father, what is my obsession with miniatures?"”

People Different Might Father Obsession Miniatures

Author:Matthea Harvey

“I also like poems that are haunted by a structure or a narrative, or poems that frisk flirtatiously at the boundary of sense.”

Structure Boundaries Narrative

Author:Matthea Harvey