Usually the poems are written in one sitting. There's always a groping towards some satisfying ending. But I'd say the hardest part is not writing. Once the writing starts, it's too pleasurable to think of it as a difficulty.

Now I would say at any given moment in American life, there are probably 45 poets in airplanes vectoring across the country heading towards...I don't know if anyone's reading it, but poets are still flying around the country going from lectern to lectern.That circuitry has become very well-established.

I think the pleasure of form is that you have a companion with you besides all the poetry you have ever read.

I stared up at the ebbing quarter moon and the stars scattered like a handful of salt across the faraway sky.

So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.

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

I think clarity is the real risk in poetry because you are exposed. You're out in the open field. You're actually saying things that are comprehensible, and it's easy to criticize something you can understand.