I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

Can it be that even as one grows to fit the space one lives in, one cannot grow until there's space to grow?

It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded.

I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.

If I begin writing a poem that means I'm intrigued in some way by whatever it's about and that if I'm not trying to find something new and pushing the envelope in the poem I can't expect my reader to be particularly excited about it either.

I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.

If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers and scientists are keeping society together.