By making us stop for a moment, poetry gives us an opportunity to think about ourselves as human beings on this planet and what we mean to each other.

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

If the poem is so moving that even if you have no experience in that particular setting be it 1920's Harlem let's say. You still are so moved that you can put yourself in that position. That means that the writer has managed to go beyond the personal and touch the humanity in all of us and it's really a blast to read it because I realize how that this does hold true for the truly great poems.

I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day to two years - or longer.

It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

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