We should always do something that makes us feel like a child again. Keep learning, no matter what it is.

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.

If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.

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

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.

To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet.

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.