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

I love the language. I'm just totally fascinated by the sound and the look of words and the kinds of cadences you can create with them, the various kinds of music.

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.

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

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.

We're all vulnerable in our various ways, and what we are physically, our bodies, is what has developed with the goal of keeping that life safe and intact, at least until we have procreated. That's what our bodies are, the protection of life.