I would say my life experiences are my poetry, whether I'm writing about those actual, factual experiences or not. Dorianne Laux More Quotes by Dorianne Laux More Quotes From Dorianne Laux You’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake. Dorianne Laux traveled mistake Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's. Dorianne Laux metaphor simple writing That's how it is sometimes--God comes to your window, all bright light and black wings, and you're just too tired to open it. Dorianne Laux tired light wings I am the flesh boat of my experiences, we all are , my feelings, thoughts, desires and dreams are captured in my body's pliant cells, fastened onto my DNA. Dorianne Laux dna cells dream I write to invite the voices in, to watch the angel wrestle, to feel the devil gather on its haunches and rise. I write to hear myself breathing. I write to be doing something while I wait to be called to my appointment with death. I write to be done writing. I write because writing is fun. Dorianne Laux angel writing fun A poem is like a child; at some point we have to let it go and trust that it will make its own way in the world. Dorianne Laux let-it-go children world Death comes to me again, a girl in a cotton slip, barefoot, giggling. It’s not so terrible she tells me, not like you think, all darkness and silence. There are windchimes and the smell of lemons, some days it rains, but more often the air is dry and sweet. I sit beneath the staircase built from hair and bone and listen to the voices of the living. I like it, she says, shaking the dust from her hair, especially when they fight, and when they sing. Dorianne Laux girl rain sweet If you want to be a writer in the world you really have to sit down and say, 'Why do I want to do this and why was I drawn to it to begin with?' And keep reminding yourself to return to that original impulse. Dorianne Laux down-and want world We continue to speak, if only in whispers, Dorianne Laux speak ifs Writing and reading are the only ways to find your voice. It won't magically burst forth in your poems the next time you sit down to write, or the next; but little by little, as you become aware of more choices and begin to make them -- consciously and unconsciously -- your style will develop. Dorianne Laux voice reading writing You are not your poetry. Your self-esteem shouldn't depend on whether you publish, or whether some editor or writer you admire thinks you're any good. Dorianne Laux editors self-esteem thinking The reason I started writing was because I was a little kid in San Diego who was getting beaten up by her dad and sexually abused and because I felt different than everybody else and I had this big huge secret that was tearing me apart. Dorianne Laux dad writing kids I don’t worry anymore about writing. There are times that I go through dry periods. I never go through a block. I’m always writing, but there are times where I’m just not on my game, and I’ll use that time to read some new poets, go see some art, walk down to the river and just stare at it, or have a conversation with my sister, or whatever—do whatever it is that I do in my life, hoping that I’ll get filled up enough. And something will happen, some juggling will happen and boom. Dorianne Laux block writing art Every poem I write falls short in some important way. But I go on trying to write the one that won’t. Dorianne Laux important writing fall I have always loved too much, Dorianne Laux too-much enough I'm not the only person in the world who is suffering. I'm trying to talk to the world, responding to those voices. Dorianne Laux voice suffering trying Every good poem asks a question, and every good poet asks every question. Dorianne Laux asks poet When you have worked with people all day who have so little and struggle to make it stretch, who live outside the rarefied, you are humbled. Dorianne Laux struggle littles people Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds. Dorianne Laux cutting important numbers Maybe it's what we don't say/that saves us. Dorianne Laux
