We don't want to live in the dark moods of imponderable mystery, but neither do we want to miss them altogether. they allow us to emerge from the ten….

The fact that something is in a rhymed form or in blank verse will not make it good poetry..

I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think..

I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction,….

Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that..

In the late 60s and early 70s, I did get interested in voices, and in narration and embodying the voice, making the poem sound like a real person tal….

Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to star….

The great watershed of modern poetry is French, more than English..

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

The Black Mountain poet I like most is the early Creeley. Those early poems seem very lyrical and very traditional, with a lot of voice and character..

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 ….

Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being….

I considered going to film school; I took a course in film and was very interested in filmmaking as well as film writing..

Philip Larkin has a tough honesty and sense of humor that I find irresistible, as a contemporary poet..