I've been thinking about my voice lately. No, not the meek, girly, unmistakeably "blonde" one, but my poetic voice. People keep saying my poetry reminds them of Buwkoski and I finally came across one of his poems today. Before, I only knew him by reputation, hard drinking and swearing, tuff-living and people hating. I also got a general impression of decay, dirt and unhappiness. But today I saw how he spoke about misery in such a deadpan, plain way. Put Wordsworth to shame. Is it "beauty is truth" or "truth is beauty"? I forget. But his truth is ugly. I believe his use of non-poetic language, images and metaphors influenced a generation of poets, and they in turn influenced me. Kathy Acker, Tricia Warden, Daphne Gottlieb and Karen Finley -- yeah, she's a writer, what, you didn't know?-- all seem to be speaking with their cunts. And I go for that blood thirsty language. Sharon Olds, the goddess mother of the new wave of female poets, speaks with every part of her body. Today, my tv was broken so I was forced to think. I thought about who is this Christine who is writing? Where did she come from? So I started to list influences. Besides those above, there's Sapphire, Lawrence Raab, James Tate, Wallace Stevens, and comic book women, Love and Rockets, Dame Darcy, Julie Doucet, and rockers, Courtney Love, Rasputina, NIN. And then there's the personal influences, Douglas Wolk, a writer for the Voice, who showed me in two dates (which I'm sure he doesn't remember, they were years ago) that writing for a living is not so impossible, and that you don't have to be a genius. Not that he's not smart. Kiki Smith, raises the body and its fluids/processess to a new form of childlike fairytale, mytho-poetic and pre-pubescent at the same time. I need to sleep. I was going to include links to everyone and thing. Maybe tomorrow. They made me "Literary" not just "poetry" editor for Wide Angle. So I get to pick both the fiction and the poetry. I'm hoping to get some really good stuff. Later.