Ordering is very important with essays, even if a reader doesn't read the essays or the poems in order through the book...

I have thought for many years that the audience any creative writer imagines has a great effect on what gets written.

From the beginning I felt that I didn't ever want to leave the impression that the process of writing a poem is totally mysterious. I couldn't explain everything that went on in the creation of a poem, but I could try to explain as much as I knew. I thought readers deserved that. I didn't want to set myself apart as being someone special.

I do love writing prose interspersed with the poetry of other people. Their rhythms break into my prose and create a connection.

Often I'm struck by something that I read; then I go and research it a little more, especially if I begin a poem, and I find out that I need to know more. Then I usually get intrigued and excited about whatever it is I'm writing about.

It sounds old-fashioned to say, but we have some kind of purpose for being here, not poets or writers, but all of us humans.

I've spent much of my life being attuned to watching for an image or a phrase that can trigger what might be a poem - could become a poem.