The Language Poets are writing only about language itself. The Ashbery poets are writing only about poetry itself. That seems to me a kind of dead end.

Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.

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.

Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back.

I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.

In the late 60s and early 70s, I did get interested in voices, and in narration and embodying the voice, making the poem sound like a real person talking.

If people associate me with a region, that's fine with me.