Whats the significance of having a U.S. Poet Laureate?
I suppose one could take that special kind of attention as a sign of poetry’s need for official support due to its neglect, but I prefer to think of it as a sign of poetry’s centrality to culture. Poetry is the most ancient form of human expression, and it forms the only true history of human emotion. It’s where the emotions go to finishing school. If we had to start throwing the “arts” overboard one at a time, I would hope that poetry would be the last to go, but I know it would be television and that we would live to regret it. The Laureateship has always been a flexible position to allow the poet to work on his or her own public or private projects — Robert Penn Warren wrote All the King’s Men; Rita Dove invited writers to explore the African Diaspora through the eyes of its artists. Looking back over your term, what were some of your goals and were you able to realize them? My goal was the same as that of previous laureates, that is, to spread the word of poetry. I especially want