And sometimes you look at the first poems by someone and you go, "They have freshness and a sense of wonder that is never recaptured again by that poet."

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.

Fiction writers learn about the development of metaphor, the use of rhythm, the way that language is compacted in order to express the feelings of - express their own feelings and the feelings of their characters.

The very good thing about MFA programs is their democratizing. They bring a lot of different people to the table.

Read poems to yourself in the middle of the night. Turn on a single lamp and read them while you're alone in an otherwise dark room or while someone else sleeps next to you. Read them when you're wide awake in the early morning, fully alert. Say them over to yourself in a place where silence reigns and the din of the culture — the constant buzzing noise that surrounds us — has momentarily stopped. These poems have come from a great distance to find you.

And what I've found over time is that for me to write a poem that I think is worthy that I can live with, two things have to happen.

But, the best times I have found, in my life, are late at night or early in the morning and I think it's because you're outside the social realm.