There's a lot of unconscious activity that goes on I think in the composition of a poem.

I knew that poets seemed to be miserable.

...pleasure, of course, is a slippery word.... Our pleasures ultimately belong to us, not to the pleasure's source.

I'm very conscious of the fact that every line should have a cadence to it. It should contribute to the progress of the poem. And that the ending of the line is a way of turning the reader's attention back into the interior of the poem.

Write the poem only you can write.

Some difficulty is warranted and other difficulty I think is gratuitous. And I think I can tell the difference. There are certainly very difficult poets that I really enjoy reading.

In the process of simplifying oneself, one often discovers the thing called voice.