If a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable.

With prose you can incorporate more details, develop scenes, sustain the tension in a special way. Prose has its own speed.

We have a lot of long narrative poems written in the 20th century, but they're not very well known, and they're not read by very many people.

A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does.

When you have an idea for a story, you want those characters to reach as many people as you can. I think you normally think of prose as a way of doing that. It fits our time, the culture.

Young writers find their first audience in little magazines, and experimental writers find their only audience there.

I encourage students to pursue an idea far enough so they can see what the cliches and stereotypes are. Only then do they begin to hit pay dirt.