Our mind is dark in some way, and so we use rhetoric as a kind of prop or foil.

I can't remember the past, or I can't see very clearly, or I've gotten older and the person I was isn't there anymore, and the place I grew up isn't where I live now.

I think those of us who use language are always trying for this, trying to keep everything from floating away by trying to write about it despite failure.

I'm in California, so I know people who are natives who tell me there's lots of weather here, but it's not the same as being in Vermont. Since I grew up on the East Coast I miss that weather all the time. You'd think I'd get used to not having it, but I don't.

Often poets fall into groups that exclude others, and don't pay attention to those who write in different ways. It seems so limited to me.

I can't move my body slowly. I can't move the line slowly. So I end up with way too much, often opaque to me later.

For me, failure has to be acknowledged, needs to be faced in some way.