No. I suppose the ways I am an American poet are inherent. Someone else would notice them in ways that I don't.

When you consider your own "tradition," do you think primarily of American poets?

When I consider my own "tradition," I think primarily of poets who have written in English, mainly from the US and the British Isles. I think of Yeats, Hardy, Hopkins, Heaney, Hughes; of Lowell, John Crowe Ransom, Creeley, Bishop. For me the tradition is in English, and it flows through the Anglo-Saxon poets, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and so on. It's not a fetish for me, as it was for William Carlos Williams, for example, to be "American." I don't think the imagination recognizes nationality. It's like that haiku by Issa, which mocks the idea of nationality:

These sea slugs, / they just don't seem / *Japanese.*

Do you believe there is anything specifically American about past and contemporary American poetry? Is there American poetry in the sense that there is said to be American painting or American film? Do you wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry?

Certainly there must be something specifically American about our poetry—both positive and negative. We are by nature more daring than the Europeans and our poetry has tended to be bolder and more experimental. On the other hand, the down side of that is American poems often try for the grand or exalted finish, which sometimes comes off sounding forced.

Which historic poets do you consider most responsible for generating distinctly American poetics?

Whitman is obviously most responsible for generating distinctly American poetics. Also Williams, and through him, Creeley.

What import does regional poetry occupy in your sense of American poetry?

Regional poetry is important to me. Of course all poetry is regional, but I like Southern poets like Ransom, New England poets like Frost and Robinson, and Western poets like Robinson Jeffers.

Are you interested in poetry written in America but not in English?

I'm not very interested in poetry written in America but not in English, because I don't read any other language well enough to appreciate it fully, and if you can't read a poem in the original, you can't say that you can read it at all.

Do other aspects of your life (for instance, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity) figure more prominently than nationality in your self-identity as a poet?

As for aspects of my life that are more important than being "American," I would name neither gender, ethnicity, etc., but sensibility, which is completely unique to the individual in a way these other characteristics are not.

Do you believe you could readily distinguish a poem by an American poet from a poem by other poets writing in English?

Yes, I think I could easily distinguish a poem by an Americna poet from a poem by other poets writing in English.

What do you see as the consequences of "political correctness" for American poetry?

"Political correctness": a good thing in that it has introduced us to new poets; a terrible thing in that it elevates gender and ethnicity over the ability to write a poem that uses the language freshly, with exciting imaginative qualities. Many outstanding poets are ignored and other really mediocre poets like Alice Walker and Rita Dove are elevated. Gibbons Ruark, for instance, is ten times the poet Dove & Walker are, but he's a white male.

What are your predictions for American poetry in the next century?

I have no idea what American poetry will be like in the next century; but I hope to make my contribution.