Female Poet, Male Critics, What the F?!

Diane Wakoski is often put into the same category of women poets including Plath, Sexton, and Rich to name a few; pretty big names all of whom I have heard of except for Wakoski until reading her work for this class. Why have I not heard of her until now? What makes her less noted? Her poetry is labeled dismal, emotional, hateful, unmeaningfull, rambling, lacking cohesiveness, angry, blameful. She is often praised for her “contemporary” feminist views, like women haven’t been thinking and going through what she went through since the beginning of time. And then she is criticized for her raw emotion. Some have said she doesn’t feel she embodies any kind of connective spirit amongst women going against my idea that even though she had some traumatic events that I have never encountered she is fully connected with other women even with other people and how we all suffer. She gave up two children for adoption in the 50’s when premarital sex was a travesty, her father abandoned her and her mother at a young age, she has been married four times, many of her male companions cheated on her, she was shy even though she liked to show off her smarts throughout her jr. high and high school career, and she spent many years living financially off of others to pursue her poetry. Ok, I don’t relate to any of that but still I feel connected to her. Diane includes many of the people from her personal history in her work including a creepy connection with her beloved Uncle Elmer and George Washington whom Diane uses to embody fathers, political leaders, and sexual partners. She has one ongoing poem entitled Greed which is divided by numbers. Part 14 was trashed by the New York Times. Growing old has finally given Diane something worth complaining about. So many critics I have read in reference books are men who more times than not give little credit to Diane’s subject matter and style. Many claim that when she expresses situations from her personal history, which is basically all of what she writes, she rambles on and the poetic value drops. Some women say the same thing, that she gives a bad impression of women as weak and unable to cope with the stresses of their lives. Writing is coping and she did a hell of a lot of it. She is well published. Why had I not heard of her?