I Was Aware That A Quarter Of

Sometimes You Have To Be Less Ashamed About Writing A Bad Poem Than You Would Be About Being Silent.

I Think That What Art Can Do Is Refresh Our Sense Of Justice, Wake Us Up To What We've Taken For Granted In The Political Realm, As In The Other Realms.

As I Started Reading About It, I Saw That At The Beginning Of The 19th Century, Outside Of New England - Which Was An Unusually Literate Place - Practically No One Could Read Or Write. And Even In New England, The Overall Rate Was Only About 60 Percent. That Still Means Four Out Of 10 People Couldn't Put Their Name To A Will.

Poetry Had In The Hands Of Various People Become A Place For Inconvenient Knowledge Insofar As It Was A Place For Knowledge At All. But It Was A Place Where You Could Talk About Other Kinds Of Experience Than The Official Version.

If You're Imaginatively Responsible To The Place You Live In, You Understand The Watershed.