My ideal reader is somebody who reads my poems out loud.

William Shakespeare tried hard to see every facet of every question, probably because he was more interested in questions than in answers. That's a big part of what makes him great, in my opinion.

I can't read my poem "Distracted by an Ergonomic Bicycle" without thinking of Seattle, where the events of the poem took place, and I can't read "In Defense of the Semicolon" without thinking of Toronto - but why should that matter to anyone else? If another reader imagines "In Defense of the Semicolon" taking place in New Orleans, great.

If poems very different from my own bring pleasure to a group of readers, who am I to say that the poems should have been written differently?

I do consider myself Canadian, but I feel American, too. I've spent more than fifteen years in each of the two countries, so really I just think of myself as a dual citizen, which is what I am. Thankfully, I've never been forced to choose!

As a species, we create tools to control our environment. What excites my imagination is wilderness: our materials' ability to escape our control.

I'm a mix; I'm sure some of my Canadian friends find me very American, both in person and on the page.