I always wanted to be some kind of writer - I wrote plays and songs and "books" before I realized living and breathing people still wrote poems..

I believe it's impossible to write good poetry without reading. Reading poetry goes straight to my psyche and makes me want to write. I meet the muse….

The spoken word community was significant in making me want to write accessible and urgent poems. Bob Holman, in particular, was an impressive figure..

I am open to squeezing in whatever I can in this wonderful life. Instead of asking, "Is that all there is?" I seem, lately, to be always saying, "Wow….

I know writers for whom the act of writing is a necessary chore. They suffer to write great work. I am very lucky that for me writing is a delight..

I had no idea, when I was writing early on, that my poems would be published or read by anyone, never mind people I knew or would meet. I just wrote ….

I have no idea, actually, where I fit in, in terms of poetry camps. At AWP conferences, I have been on panels about humor, collaboration, visual poet….

The "truth" is the poem itself. Just because someone writes a poem about a feeling she has does not mean that the feeling will stay forever. The trut….

As a teenager, I loved acting, painting, photography, and making films with my friend's Super 8 camera. But I always loved writing the best. I chose ….

If you are my friend and say to me, "Please don't write about this," I won't..

I still write what I need to write - but I can't deny that something has changed when I think about sending work out. Maybe it's just growing older a….

I also could see myself as a stand-up comedian, a fashion designer (for people of all sizes), a hairdresser, an earnest and eventually burnt-out poli….

Though it does seem like I have written an immense amount of work, over the years I have pushed the pause button. I have poems that I haven't sent ou….

I love going to movie theaters, even in the era of movies on-demand and Netflix. When you are in a movie theater, no one can reach you by phone or ot….

Unlike Woody Allen, I would be happy to be part of any (poetry) club that would have me..

While poetry was less professionalized than it is now, I still had this urge to win prizes and see my work in magazines, to get an "A," as though poe….

Not that a poem can "hurt" someone the same way a physical blow can or even a mean remark can...I just felt unsure that my tone would be taken the ri….

What has stayed true in my life as a writer is my dedication to writing - I try to write every day, no matter what - and the joy that writing has giv….

Writing is performative - and while, yes, the words in essence will be there "forever," poems are often about ecstatic moments rather than trying to ….

After my marriage ended, I had an urge to skip that part of my life completely in terms of poetry, not publish anything at all about it..

My advice to my younger self would have been, "Chill. Concentrate on the poems. Everything else will work itself out.".