Life & Wisdom Quote by Diane Wakoski

Wakoski’s voice here is the poet as unabashed gatekeeper, but not the petty kind. She’s staking out a practical authority: taste is unavoidable, so the honest critic names it. The key move is the double bind she refuses to romanticize. She claims she’s “a very good reader” while admitting she’s “like everybody” in having “a set of criteria.” That’s not a retreat; it’s a method. She’s telling you that objectivity in poetry is a pose, and the better ethic is accountable subjectivity: show your standards, then let the poem meet them or resist them.

The subtext is a quiet critique of workshop culture and polite literary consensus, where vague praise (“interesting,” “powerful”) replaces diagnosis. “Not shy” reads as a rebuke to critics who hide behind neutrality to avoid conflict, or to poets who treat critique as personal injury. Her repeated “and why” is doing the real work: it insists that judgments must be argued, not merely felt. It’s a defense of criticism as craft, not vibe.

Context matters: Wakoski emerged from mid-century American poetry ecosystems where gendered expectations often pressured women poets toward gratitude, softness, or self-effacement. Her refusal to apologize for standards is also a refusal of that script. The intent isn’t to shut down disagreement; it’s to force it into the open, where criteria can be tested, revised, and, ideally, made more intelligent.