Never lose your childish enthusiasm and things will come your way.
A Chinese poet many centuries ago noticed that to re-create something in words is like being alive twice.
When I was twelve, I started reading Eudora Welty, Thomas Wolfe, Flannery O'Connor, James Agee, and - do we dare breathe the name - William Faulkner.
I had the urge to examine my life in another culture and move beyond what I knew.
Poems give you the lives of others and then circle in on your own inner world.
I was born and grew up in Fitzgerald, way down in south Georgia. It was a mill town and my family ran the cotton mill. My grandfather was mayor many times and my family felt deeply rooted to that spot.