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Continue to ChatI hope any poem I've ever written could stand on its own and not need to be a part of biography, critical theory or cultural studies. I don't want to give a poetry reading and have to provide the story behind the poem in order for it to make sense to an audience. I certainly don't want the poem to require a critical intermediary - a "spokescritic." I want my poems to be independently meaningful moments of power for a good reader. And that's the expectation I initially bring to other poets' writing. - Albert Goldbarth from https://whatsmyquote.com/quote/i-hope-any-poem-i-ve-ever-written-could-stand-on-its-own-and-not-need-to-be-a-part-of-biography-critical