What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?
The inaugural poet is an example. Elegies are another. Poetry brings people together, a community. A few semesters ago I brought to my students a book of poems by a poet I’d assigned to the class and each read a few lines aloud, then passed the book to the next until all had read by turns to the end of the poem. A moment of shared solemnity, wonder and delight in poetry.
How did you first engage with poetry?
From the earliest of years the world itself seemed like poetry, everything new. Then childhood verse, playground rhymes. Later, songs of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix.
How does a poem begin?
It begins with a word. A thought. Notes. A line or more. Hours, or many months, years later, a poem.
Why is poetry important?
Poetry is everything, and nothing. It's as important as a leaf falling to the ground. The leaf noticed, or not, wondered at, or not, the experience of the leaf fleeting and turning into something new.
Photo credit: Jon Harlow
What are you working on?
I'm writing short stories and making progress on two longer works of fiction. A second book of poetry is taking shape.
