I don't think of poetry as a 'rational' activity but as an aural one. My poems usually begin with words or phrases which appeal more because of their sound than their meaning, and the movement and phrasing of a poem are very important to me.

Despite their cool poses they wear their cravings on the outside, like the suckers on a squid. They want it all.

I am too old to have ever been very worried about what "genre" any given book of mine might be. I read everything. I am easily amused.

Where do the words go when we have said them?

Her glass wings are gone.

Americans don't usually have to think about Canadian-American relations, or, as they would put it, American-Canadian relations. Why think about something which you believe affects you so little? We, on the other hand, have to think about you whether we like it or not.

Don't let the bastards grind you down. I repeat this to myself but it conveys nothing. You might as well say, Don't let there be air; or Don't be. I suppose you could say that.