To Examine "It"

"I don't write to express myself. I write to examine 'it.' There is a lot of 'it' out there. This is what my poetry does. That I have standpoints emerging from my social locations (class, religious culture, gender, national origin) is a true statement; that I make intricate weaves of these elements is true; that I can learn more about any social location and respond to it if sufficiently moved is also true. I begin by setting out from myself, as you say -- precisely, because by beginning I get beyond the boundedness of 'self' into something more. As for 'me,' -- forget 'me' or 'I.' It's as if we are yearning toward a new pronoun to understand something else than what subject positions emerge from the pronouns we already know and use."
~ Rachel Blau DuPlessis, in an interview with CAConrad