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.

I seem to keep returning to my father in poems because his personality was so extreme, so driven. He did everything to excess.

I write as a way of keeping myself going. You build your life around writing, and it's what gets you through. So it's partly just curiosity to see what you can do.

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.

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

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

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.