My advice to my younger self would have been, "Chill. Concentrate on the poems. Everything else will work itself out."

The "biggest" poems I ever made are based on the psychological principal of the "Johari Window:" what the self freely shares with others; what the self hides from others; what others hide from the self; and what is unknown to the self and others.

I still write what I need to write - but I can't deny that something has changed when I think about sending work out. Maybe it's just growing older and feeling more responsible to the world.

My advice to my younger self would have been, "Chill. Concentrate on the poems. Everything else will work itself out."

What has stayed true in my life as a writer is my dedication to writing - I try to write every day, no matter what - and the joy that writing has given me.

After my marriage ended, I had an urge to skip that part of my life completely in terms of poetry, not publish anything at all about it.

Over the years, I became more and more interested in the forms and techniques in which things could be said.