I Think That My Work Is Easy

I Have Never Thought I Could Take It, Not Even For The Children. It Is All I Have Wanted To Do, To Stand Between Them And And Pain. But I Come From A Long Line Of Women Who Put Themselves First.

If I Wrote In A Sonnet Form, I Would Be Distorting. Or If I Had Some Great New Idea For Line Breaks And I Used It In A Poem, But It's Really Not Right For That Poem, But I Wanted It, That Would Be Distorting.

I'm Not Asking A Poem To Carry A Lot Of Rocks In Its Pockets. Just Being An Ordinary Observer And Liver And Feeler And Letting The Experience Get Through You Onto The Notebook With The Pen, Through The Arm, Out Of The Body, Onto The Page, Without Distortion.

Writing Or Making Anything-a Poem, A Bird Feeder, A Chocolate Cake-has Self-respect In It. You're Working. You're Trying. You're Not Lying Down On The Ground, Having Given Up.

I'm Not Sure That The Benefit - As A Writer And As A Citizen - That I Would Get From Reading At Least The Front Page Of The Times Every Day Or Every Other Day Would Outweigh The Depression.