There's something immediate about the experience of reading a poem. It makes sense in my own mind, but I'm trying to figure out a way to articulate it... It's like looking at a painting: you're able to take in the totality of the work all at once, and so processing whatever information that painting is giving you is almost secondary to simply apprehending what's in front of you.

Joining the military is not to be taken lightly. You're putting every part of yourself at risk, not just your body but your moral and spiritual centre.

The war came to me in my dreams and showed me its sole purpose: to go on, only to go on.

The war tried to kill us in the spring. As grass greened the plains of Nineveh and the weather warmed, we patrolled the low-slung hills beyond the cities and towns. We moved over them and through the tall grass on faith, kneading paths into the windswept growth like pioneers. While we slept, the war rubbed its thousand ribs against the ground in prayer.

My personal opinion is that if someone writes honestly about war, it will inherently be anti-war.

But I remember being told that the truth does not depend on being believed.

Poetry and prose are of equal importance to me as a reader, and there doesn't seem to be much difference in my own writing.