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

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

I change jobs like drinking water ... And as I grow accustomed to the new flavor of a drink I regard as delicious, yes, vital, something fades, life balks. So I break camp; I shed skins.

We tend to be so bombarded with information, and we move so quickly, that there's a tendency to treat everything on the surface level and process things quickly. This is antithetical to the kind of openness and perception you have to have to be receptive to poetry.poetry seems to exist in a parallel universe outside daily life in America.

I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more.

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.

Poetry connects you to yourself, to the self that doesn't know how to talk or negotiate.