#TPQ5: CLAIRE MILLIKIN

Federico Garcia Lorca – Selected Poems

Federico Garcia Lorca is the reason I write poetry. His work is pure lyric, and always goes to the depths. I read the poems in Spanish but the New Directions Selected poems provides helpful translations, which I need for some words.

Li–Young Lee – Rose

Li-Young Lee writes poetry that makes sense to me. The images open with unforced revelation.

John Haines – Winter News

John Haines’ poetry is like walking into an empty room and seeing all the way across a forest through an open window.

Gwendolyn Brooks – A Street in Bronzeville

For the music, the immaculate form, the depth of insight. “I keep eyes pointed inward,” I think about that line all the time.

Galway Kinnell – The Book of Nightmares

Because I have bad dreams, and this book understands what that is like.


Claire Millikin is a poet and scholar. She is the author of six full-length books of poetry, including After Houses-Poetry for the Homeless (2Leaf Press 2014) and Ransom Street (2Leaf Press 2019), as well as State Fair Animals (Unicorn Press 2018) and Television (Unicorn Press 2016).

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