I like connecting the abstract to the concrete. There's a tension in that. I believe the reader or listener should be able to enter the poem as a participant. So I try to get past resolving poems.
abstract concrete connect
Yusef Komunyakaa
These are some quotes by American author Yusef Komunyakaa Poet, who was born on April 29, 1947.
Quotes by Yusef Komunyakaa
Students often have such a lofty idea of what a poem is, and I want them to realize that their own lives are where the poetry comes from. The most important things are to respect the language; to know the classical rules, even if only to break them; and to be prepared to edit, to revise, to shape.
