Who gets to choose what battle takes her down?
Clearly, once the student is no longer a student the possibilities of relationship are enlarged.
Perhaps first and foremost is the challenge of taking what I find as a reader and making it into a poem that, primarily, has to be a plausible poem in English.
Everyone thinks they're going to write one book of poems or one novel.
Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.
I try to write everyday. I do that much better over here than when I'm teaching. I always rewrite, usually fairly close-on which is to say first draft, then put it aside for 24 hours then more drafts.