I believe that words can help us move or keep us paralyzed, and that our choices of language and verbal tone have something - a great deal - to do wi… - Adrienne Rich

I think poets should work in the non-literary, non-academic world, get to know more than a workshop or a university.

Much male fear of feminism is the fear that, in becoming whole human beings, women will cease to mother men, to provide the breast, the lullaby, the continuous attention associated by the infant with the mother. Much male fear of feminism is infantilism–the longing to remain the mother’s son, to possess a woman who exists purely for him. ("Husband-Right and Father-Right" 1977)

Poetry reaches into places in us that we are suppose to ignore or mistrust, that are perceived as subversive or non-useful, in what is fast becoming known as global culture. (2001)