The attention deficit disorder of the culture is very distressing in America now and I think it puts a lot of things at risk, not just poetry.

think what you hope for is that at different times of your life you're able to write the poetry that reflects the moment that you're in on your own journey.

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

Books and newspapers assume a "common reader" that is, a person who knows the things known by other literate persons in the culture. Obviously, such assumptions are never identical from writer to writer, but they show a remarkable consistency

I think it's one of the things that drive lyric poetry, our sense of mortality.

The attention deficit disorder of the culture is very distressing in America now and I think it puts a lot of things at risk, not just poetry.

So, the process of revision, it's not systematic. But for me, I mean, I know a lot of poets who write out a draft and then revise it and I think they're happier people. But, I'm just not able to do it that way. I need to just continually examine it as I do it.