I'm perfectly happy when I look out at an audience and it's all women. I always think it's kind of odd but then more women than men I think read and write poetry.

Because in fact women feminists do read my poetry and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I don't care that's what poetry is supposed to do.

Still language is resilient and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground.

I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.

High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art and American poetry is not excluded from this.

But I don't think that poetry is a good to use a contemporary word venue for current events.

But I am not political in the current events sense and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.

American poetry like American painting is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

And I know I'm supposed to feel guilty for wanting people to buy my books... and books in general? Novels and poetry they belong to the realm of art. How dirty of us to try to hawk art! But after a decade of hand-wringing and apologies I can't quite muster the guilt anymore.

There have been two popular subjects for poetry in the last few decades: the Vietnam War and AIDS about both of which almost all of us have felt deeply.