I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.

There are rituals not structures for being a poet, drinking too much, taking too many drugs, being a lady chaser, having your nervous breakdown, being irresponsible about money.

But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.

High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art, and American poetry is not excluded from this.

But I don't think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events.

I think one of the things that language poets are very involved with is getting away from conventional ideas of beauty, because those ideas contain a certain attitude toward women, certain attitudes toward sex, certain attitudes toward race, etc.

I think I'm a very good reader of poetry, but obviously, like everybody, I have a set of criteria for reading poems, and I'm not shy about presenting them, so if people ask for my critical response to a poem, I tell them what works and why, and what doesn't work and why.