If I'm working on a poem, it's at the forefront of my mind; I'm working on it when I'm cooking dinner or stretched out on the sofa. But if I don't really have it by the 10th draft, I know it just isn't going to jell. Maxine Kumin More Quotes by Maxine Kumin More Quotes From Maxine Kumin We are, each of us, our own prisoner. We are locked up in our own story. Maxine Kumin prisoner stories writing I would not recommend poetry as a career. In the first place, it's impossible in this time and place - in this culture - to make poetry a career. The writing of poetry is one thing. It's an obsession, the scratching of a divine itch, and has nothing to do with money. You can, however, make a career out of being a poet by teaching, traveling around, and giving lectures. It's a thin living at best. Maxine Kumin careers teaching writing When Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she is almost fifty years old Maxine Kumin wake-up sleep years To write about the monstrous sense of alienation the poet feels in this culture of polarized hatreds is a way of staying sane. With the poem, I reach out to an audience equally at odds with official policy, and I celebrate our mutual humanness in an inhuman world. Maxine Kumin odds hatred writing It is important to act as if bearing witness matters. Maxine Kumin bearing-witness important matter Cherish your wilderness. Maxine Kumin wilderness cherish I didn't write my poems because I wanted to, they were wrung from me. I had to write them. Maxine Kumin poetry wanted writing Here on the drawing board fingers and noses leak from the air brush maggots lie under if i should die before if i should die in the back room stacked up in smooth boxes like soapflakes or tunafish wait the undreamt of. Maxine Kumin air dream lying Love, we are a small pond. Maxine Kumin ponds love I'm going home the old way with a light hand on the reins making the long approach. Maxine Kumin women light home Women are not supposed to have uteruses, especially in poems. Maxine Kumin uterus women poetry Everything pays for growing tame. Maxine Kumin growing pay God serves the choosy. They know what to want. Maxine Kumin choosy god want One way of ending the poem is to turn it back on itself, like a serpent with its tail in its mouth. Maxine Kumin poetry mouths tails Nature is a catchment of sorrows. Maxine Kumin sorrow nature The tougher the form the easier it is for me to handle the poem, because the form gives permission to be very gut honest about feelings. Maxine Kumin honest feelings giving My writing time needs to surround itself with empty stretches, or at least unpeopled ones, for the writing takes place in an area of suspension as in a hanging nest that is almost entirely encapsulated. Maxine Kumin nests writing needs Poetry Maxine Kumin valleys poetry happens ... people get confidential at midnight. Maxine Kumin confidential midnight people Sometimes tradition is a way of keeping going. Maxine Kumin tradition sometimes way
