The fact that something is in a rhymed form or in blank verse will not make it good poetry.

Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.

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

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.

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.

Philip Larkin has a tough honesty and sense of humor that I find irresistible, as a contemporary poet.

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.