Gertrude Stein said, "I write for myself and strangers." I would say I write for myself, strangers and the great dead.

Gertrude Stein said, "I write for myself and strangers." I would say I write for myself, strangers and the great dead.

So, it's a continual process of trial and error and then I find things and I throw it out and start again, but I keep writing it over again.

I think there are different kinds of poetry for different stages of life and there's the wild, exuberance of youth, there's the painful agony of midlife experience, there's the late poetry in the presence of death.

Sometimes I have a feeling that I just can't get rid of. Sometimes there's an experience that I want to write about that I have to get off my chest. Sometimes there are some words that appeal to you.

There's never been a culture without poetry in the history of the world. In every culture, in every language there is expressive play, expressive word play, there's language use to different purposes that we would call poetry.

I think the culture can absorb so many people writing poetry and trying to earn their living in poetry.