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.

American poetry is always about defining oneself individually,claiming one's right to be different and often to break taboos.

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

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

Sometimes the archaism of the language when it's spoken is why we are all in love with the Irish today.

Poems reveal secrets when they are analyzed. The poet's pleasure in finding ingenious ways to enclose her secrets should be matched by the reader's pleasure in unlocking and revealing these secrets.

I am not political as a person.