Unlike Woody Allen, I would be happy to be part of any (poetry) club that would have me.

Unlike Woody Allen, I would be happy to be part of any (poetry) club that would have me.

Writing is performative - and while, yes, the words in essence will be there "forever," poems are often about ecstatic moments rather than trying to pin down a particular truth of an event.

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

I know writers for whom the act of writing is a necessary chore. They suffer to write great work. I am very lucky that for me writing is a delight.

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.

I always wanted to be some kind of writer - I wrote plays and songs and "books" before I realized living and breathing people still wrote poems.