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.

I think fiction goes to poetry for the intensity of its use of language.

And when I'm writing well and when I'm inside the feeling, then I can do fairly complicated things with some fluency.

I did not know the work of mourning Is a labor in the dark We carry inside ourselves

The idea of how to read a poem is based on the idea that poetry needs you as a reader. That the experience of poetry, the meaning in poetry is a kind of circuit that takes place between a poet, a poem and a reader and that meaning doesn't exist or in here in poems alone.

The way to become a poet is to read poetry and to imitate what you read and to read passionately and widely and in as involved a way as you can.

I don't think you can read poetry while you're watching television very well.