There is some humour in 'Family Values.' I don't want everyone to think it's not going to make them laugh. But there are quite a lot of poems there that aren't funny at all.
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One of the things that binds us as a family is a shared sense of humor.
Sometimes, I think the best kind of poem is one in which there is an acute balance between what is humorous and that which is very serious. That balance is very hard to strike. But it can be done.
The interesting thing is that you don't often meet a poet who doesn't have a sense of humour, and some of them do keep it out of their poems because they're afraid of being seen as light versifiers.
Family jokes, though rightly cursed by strangers, are the bond that keeps most families alive.
I don't think anyone in my family was funny.
Comedy has always been important in my family. If you got in a good joke at the dinner table, it meant more than almost anything else.
There just is not one person in my family who is not funny.
Humour is a fine line to walk in poetry, as in fiction. I just think it's harder to write. It's harder to keep the respect of the reader too.
One thing my family has shown me is that having a sense of humor is everything.
If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul.
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