SOURCE: An interview in The American Poetry Review, Vol. 14, No. 4, July-August, 1985, pp. 11-14.

In the following interview, originally published in 1975, George and Mary Oppen discuss philosophy, politics, and poetry.

This conversation took place in 1975 at the Oppen residence on Polk Street in San Francisco.

[Interviewer]: Mr. Oppen, you are known to be among the handful of poets who consistently decline invitations to read their work in public. May I ask why?

[George Oppen]: Of course, the primary reason is that I don't absolutely have to, and that if a poet possibly can make his living outside poetry, well, it's obviously a certain broadening of experience. In addition, I feel very strongly—not as a theory or an exhortation to anybody else, but for myself—that the poem is supposed to be on the page.

I don't think that audiences have a right to examine the personality of the...