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.

My object when writing prose is to write as clearly as possible. I think I know what I'm saying in prose, and I want others to understand it and to be able to restate it.

I approach writing a poem in a much different state than when I am writing prose. It's almost as if I were working in a different language when I'm writing poetry. The words - what they are and what they can become - the possibilities of the words are vastly expanded for me when I'm writing a poem.

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.

I think the language of science is highly lyrical and evocative and an important part of our lives in many ways.

A poetic list is a talent in itself. You can write a list of things, and it can be boring.

I see my poems as interlinked. No poem gives an answer. It may offer other questions, it may instigate other questions that then become poems.