Poetry is something that happens in universities, in creative writing programs or in English departments.

The number of people writing poems is vast, and their reasons for doing so are many, that much can be surmised from the stacks of submissions.

It hardly seems worthwhile to point out the shortsightedness of those practitioners who would have us believe that the form of the poem is merely its shape.

From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.

I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.

I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.

Once you start describing nothingness, you end up with somethingness.