There was a giant who was particularly fond of humans.
He camped near them, his lice -- white bears and white wolves.
He drank whole lakes when he grew thirsty
and generated winds throughout Siberia. He once fell in love
with an Inuk woman, and since he was already married,
convinced the woman's husband to swap his wife
for the giant's. The husband was tempted by the thought
of enormous green female genitals
and agreed without asking his wife's opinion



Denise Duhamel at the Academy of American Poets
 

Interviewed by Karla Huston

As a poet, I do believe I'm a bit of a chimera. (Remember that Greek monster who had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon?). While I hope that I have lived long enough and written enough poems to have developed a voice, I also think I'm a hybrid. While I value humor in some poems, I am also very interested in the dark side, politics, spirituality, storytelling, and word play. Sometimes I am able to get two or more of those interests into a poem and other times not. I'm really honored to be included, for example, in such diverse anthologies as Bum Rush The Page and Best American Poetry. I guess I'm a crossover poet. I actually don't believe so much in poetry camps to begin with, so I'm happy to be among any poets who'll have me.