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.

Poetry of all the forms of literature I think is the most suited for the digital age and for the shorter attention spans and all of that. It Twitters very easily, some lyric poems and it's very easy to zip a poem to someone, so that's one of the things I think is wonderful about poetry in the digital age.

What writing does is to reveal.

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

In fact, sometimes traveling the world is a way of not writing a poem, but it's the quality of experience. It's being able to experience something and when you begin to write about it be able to apply the tools that you need for writing.

I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?

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