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I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.
Mark Strand -
I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.
Mark Strand
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I tend to like poems that engage me - that is to say, which do not bore me.
Mark Strand -
It's very hard to write humor.
Mark Strand -
I delay typing as long as possible. When I read a poem in longhand I'm hearing it, when in typescript I'm reading it. A poem can appear finished just because of the cleanness of the typescript.
Mark Strand -
Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.
Mark Strand -
It hardly seems worthwhile to point out the shortsightedness of those practitioners who would have us believe that the form of the poem is merely its shape.
Mark Strand