In the later books I am much more at home in the use of language to describe things. I had never thought of that until a critic pointed that out.

I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think.

Some people want to call me an Appalachian writer, even though I know some people use regional labels to belittle.

I did not have a very literary background. I came to poetry from the sciences and mathematics, and also through an interest in Japanese and Chinese poetry in translation.

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

I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.

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