Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.

The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times.

The Black Mountain poet I like most is the early Creeley. Those early poems seem very lyrical and very traditional, with a lot of voice and character.

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

Alchemy is the art of far and near, and I think poetry is alchemy in that way. It's delightful to distort size, to see something that's tiny as though it were vast.

I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that.

I considered going to film school; I took a course in film and was very interested in filmmaking as well as film writing.