I love that people want to know about poetry. It's one of the ways of keeping alive.

Teaching has given me a community that cares about poetry, and I'm grateful for that.

There are some books in which every poem is a facet of the same thing. So the book is like a piece of music. And there are books of poems that I love so much that I carry them around with me.

I love stories, but writing fiction is another craft and I don't feel as if I have it.

I worked in an art gallery for a few years, doing administrative assistance stuff, and it exposed me to what the whole world of art dealers and the art market was about.

After I started publishing poetry I got to teach creative writing. Eventually I was promoted and even got tenure. But then I felt compelled to drop everything and move. But I've been teaching for a long time. More than four decades.

Whether the poet is living or dead, they're part of our imaginative community.