I still had to correct Allen Ginsberg at times when he called women girls. I'd say. Allen please, it's not politically correct.

What I'm after is that wakeful state through language that stays alive.

My teachers were often very eccentric.

As a woman I have felt encouraged and fed by and nurtured by the work of [Jack] Kerouac and others.

How can you work on letting your thoughts go and getting synchronized into the moment and questioning your wild imagination. But I say just think of all the great Japanese and Chinese poets and scholars who were also meditators.

One has to be cautious and respectful of the power of the "substance" guides. I don't advocate imbibing the "little saint children," as Maria Sabina calls the magic mushrooms, or anything else for everyone. I find that certain substances reconnect me to a primal context of purpose that goes beyond identity and ownership. The writing-when I've worked it this way-is the kind of information you take back from dreams. Or it's hypnotic writing rather than getting off on some sort of pleasure trip or intellectual trip.

The music is notated first, the text follows. I might have to wait until the right kind of text or form arises. I often see the poems as “scores.”