Rita Dove Quotes

Rita Dove — American Poet born on August 28, 1952,

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993 to 1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 from the previous "consultant in poetry" position. Dove also received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000. Dove is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, and she served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004 to 2006... (wikipedia)

For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.

I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.

I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day.

There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.