“Usually a life turned into a poem is misrepresented.”
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I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.
Poetry is something that happens in universities, in creative writing programs or in English departments.
And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.