I think American is very democratic in allowing different hues of language and parts of speech to commingle. William Logan once wrote that I had something of a fetish for what he called "Haute Couture Vulgarity."

Confession may well be a dirty word in poetry.

I want a poem which is made of compression, passion, precision, symmetry, & disruption.

Every thing is changing every minute.

Poetry is the skin that I have between my body and the world's body.

I wanted many of the poems to have long legs. At first I was calling them clothespin poems, before I knew what I was doing. The lines seem pulled on either end, tight and taut against the wind.

I am fascinated with criminal law because it is as rigorous as a poem and because it is based on what has been written down even before one has committed a crime.