A poem is like a child; at some point we have to let it go and trust that it will make its own way in the world.

Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.

I love people and psychology. As a writer, I’m not so interested in Fred getting from the living room to the car. I want to go inside Fred’s soul and play there.

The reason I started writing was because I was a little kid in San Diego who was getting beaten up by her dad and sexually abused and because I felt different than everybody else and I had this big huge secret that was tearing me apart.

I share my life experiences as a poet with my students. My poetic difficulties, joys, struggles and discoveries. If I read a new poem or essay or book I'm excited about, I bring it in.

A poem is like a child; at some point we have to let it go and trust that it will make its own way in the world.

We're all writing out of a wound, and that's where our song comes from. The wound is singing. We're singing back to those who've been wounded.