I actually can't listen to music and write poetry at the same time, but I do kind of think about the music I've been listening to when I write.

Confessionalism relates to writers of color. I think confessional poetry is in its way very Catholic, capital C. One of the formative ideas of Confessionalism, beyond psychoanalysis, is a very actual fall from grace. And, at least in America, people of color never occupy that position of grace the way that white people do. So I think that in some very actual ways the confessional mode, strictly speaking, is not possible for non-white writers.

I like having a phrase lying around to get poems started. It's like having a key.

I think about the body kind of all the time, being as how I'm really uncomfortable in mine.

That's a fairly Wordsworthian way to look at things! But yeah, actually - part of the poet's work, I think, is to maintain or reintroduce the imaginative capacity of their earlier self while nonetheless maturing. And I do think the more successful the poet is at this particular thing, the greater their achievement as a poet.

I hope I can write toward my interests. But poets should be afraid of too fluidly responding to what they're interested in.

I actually can't listen to music and write poetry at the same time, but I do kind of think about the music I've been listening to when I write.