Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Southern poets are still writing narrative poems, poems in forms, dramatic poems.
Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.
I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.
Twentieth-century American poetry has been one of the glories of modern literature.
I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.
Every so often I find some poems that are too good for the readers of The Atlantic because they are a little too involved with the nature of poetry, as such.
American poetry is this country's greatest patrimony. It takes a stranger to see some things clearly. This is one of them, and I am that stranger.
Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with reference to gender and race or ethnic origins.
From the catbird seat, I've found poetry to be the necessary utterance it has always been in America.
The South is full of memories and ghosts of the past. For me, it is the most inspiring place to write, from William Faulkner's haunted antebellum home to the banks of the Mississippi to the wind that whispers through the cotton fields.
No opposing quotes found.