The Vietnam War and the Iraq war, in different ways, both made me feel like I could not not address them. I'm very doubtful about the usefulness of poetry to do that.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
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.
It took me 14 years to write poems about Vietnam. I had never thought about writing about it, and in a way I had been systematically writing around it.
The poets who have written the best poems about war seem to be the poets whose countries have experienced an invasion or vicious dictatorships.
In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty.
My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.
Poetry can tell us about what's going on in our lives - not only our personal but our social and political lives.
Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.
Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.
Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.
Poetry is the hardest thing that there is. It fascinates me, so I want to write more of it.
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