One cannot have "success" in poetry. If I wanted to be successful, I'd have become a lawyer.

Because I wake up late, my day is often short. I'm much more active in the evenings, during which I alternately read, write, needle-point, smoke, email, and despair over my decision last June to put my television and DVD player out on the street because I wasn't getting enough work done.

There IS a difference between poetry and prose! Poems should be sonically charged and new to the ear.

My day does not truly begin until I've acquired and consumed a 32-ounce Big Gulp of diet coke from 7-Eleven. It's the Big Gulp that's important, not 7-Eleven, where I find the employees rather disagreeable.

I have no precise idea of who makes up my readership. I'm surprised when I discover people have read my poems at all.

When fiction writers like my poems I feel like I've hit the jackpot.

Different drinks have different metaphorical weight. Wine's heady, gin is poisonous, vodka's cold, and beer is plain boring. In real life, I'm a big fan of boxed white wine, much to the dismay of my more refined friends.