In all the poems I've written I've not really engaged in politics, and when I've found myself moving in that direction I've always stopped myself.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.
During my twenties and thirties, my interest in the political poem increased as my apparent access to it declined. I sensed resistances around me. I was married; I lived in a suburb; I had small children.
I stay out of politics because if I begin thinking too much about politics, I'll probably... drop writing children's books and become a political cartoonist again.
For me, writing, drawing, and political activism are three separate pursuits; each has its own intensity. I happen to be especially attuned to and engaged with the society in which I live. Both my writing and my drawing are invariably mixed up with politics, whether I want them to be or not.
A lot of young poets today, from what I've heard and experienced, can't get their heads past George W. Bush, and I've heard so many poems about this democracy and this era of politics that I'm kind of bored by it.
I have some very personal feelings about politics, but I don't get into it because I do comedy already.
You can't talk about life without talking about politics. You have to have both. If you're just a political person, you're going to burn out. If you, as an artist, are just focused inward, you're going to eventually be irrelevant.
I had no intention of entering politics, but then the force of events led me to become involved in politics.
My art and poetry is very political now. Because you've got to find that truth within you and express yourself. Somewhere out there, I know, there will be people who will listen.
My poems are political in the deeper sense of the word. Political means to live in your time, to be a man of your time.