From the article Sam linked:
Writing in The Times Book Review in 1976, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louis Simpson described her work this way:
“What separates poets from mere versifiers is a quality of feeling based in experience. This is why the poems of Ai, for example, make the poems of most of her contemporaries seem like kid stuff.”
High praise from a strong source; accurate and well-deserved. Alas!
Thanks,
Bill