Rita Dove
Rita Dove
Rita Frances Doveis an American poet and author. From 1993 to 1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African-American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 from the previous "consultant in poetry" position. Dove also received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000. Dove is the second African American...
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth28 August 1952
CityAkron, OH
A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it.
The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.
If we’re going to solve the problems of the world, we have to learn how to talk to one another. Poetry is the language at its essence. It’s the bones and the skeleton of the language. It teaches you, if nothing else, how to choose your words.
Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more.
There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.
I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.
Poetry connects you to yourself, to the self that doesn't know how to talk or negotiate.