Poems are not easy to start, and they're not easy to finish. There's a great pleasure in - I wouldn't say ease, but maybe kind of a fascinated ease that accompanies the actual writing of the poem. I find it very difficult to get started.

But tonight, the lion of contentment has placed a warm heavy paw on my chest.

The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper.

I thought originally when I was in school and I wanted to be a poet, I knew that poets seemed to be miserable.

There are interesting forms of difficulty, and there are unprofitable forms of difficulty. I mean, I enjoy some difficult poetry, but some of it is impenetrable and I actually wouldn't want to penetrate it if I could, perhaps.

I love to move like a mouse inside this puzzle for the body, balancing the wish to be lost with the need to be found.

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.