I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.

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.

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

To me, a poem is almost like someone whispering to another person, or you hear the whispering in your head. I hope with my own poems that the reader feels a connection, soul to soul, that'll help us all feel a little less alone on the planet. And it does have the power to direct change. A writer can make the word 'dark' be something positive. You can relieve a word like 'hysterical' of its misogynistic implications. You can make the language your own. That's what poetry is about.

At the very beginning when I begin writing a poem I try not to think of the audience or anyone at all except for trying to get at the very center of what is driving that poem. In a way it's like analyzing myself.