Every poet I know - although there may be some I don't know who lead very different lives, who maybe live in the country and don't teach - tends to be just like the rest of us: just really busy, really overcommitted.

Once you lose someone it is never exactly the same person who comes back.

Seeing yourself as responsible for the quality of your relationship, as a prime mover in your life, I think is a bold, amazing step.

Who wants to put together something that will bear some relationship to the vision or memory or experience or story or idea or dream or whatever.

Because a poem is not written while running or while answering the phone. It's written in whatever minutes one has. Sometimes you have half an hour.

Take your vitamins. Exercise. Just work to love yourself as much as you can - not more than the people around you but not so much less.

Many poets write books. They'll tell you: Well, I've got my next book, but there are two poems I need to write, one about x, one about y. This is a wonder to me.