Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.

I think that when a poem can move readers across generations and across its specific class or race then it becomes truly classic.

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 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.

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

I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

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