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

I think that the casual reader and the lyric and confession are trickily tied up together. I mean often when I read my students' poems my first impul….

People get anxious about dividing sorts of poetry, say Confessionalism from political poetry. But Confessionalism is very much an expression of racia….

Confessionalism relates to writers of color. I think confessional poetry is in its way very Catholic, capital C. One of the formative ideas of Confes….

I believe rhythmic sensibility is always a product and extension of language, defined broadly, among other things. But it is an immediate product and….

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 imagina….

I do try to incorporate particular rhythmic and generally sonic motifs I discover in music as such, and if one thinks of language in a narrow sense, ….

I learned to write with my desk in the living room, next to the TV. But mostly in my head, and I try to be able to do it under any circumstances..

I just can't write and listen to music at the same time..

I love to read long books. I enjoy experiencing that extension. But it's not something I feel comfortable with and not something I think I can gain c….

Certainly for me prose has a dilatory capacity, insofar as I don't trust my abilities in prose. I imagine I could have done the same thing in poetry,….

I think that the moment we're living in offers the best opportunity we've had in a long time in that a lot of things having to do with identity polit….

There's no such thing as an animal too big too kill, AND we're cornered by such animals every day..

I don't know that I find either aspect of Jesus more interesting than the other, although maybe I think about the God one more..

I wanted to be a composer for a while, and for a while, and maybe still, I found writing music much easier than writing poetry. So maybe my brain cli….

If I can quote myself, I explained whatever it is I'm doing once for No Tell Motel, and I still think it's the clearest I've ever been about this: "I….

I definitely notice the absence of character in most poetry, which is not so say that I'm an innovator in that regard. Character-based poems are not ….

I was just thinking about how my grandparents, who raised me, would be considered "white trash," whatever that means - mostly for being racists, I'd ….

I'm always glad that other people are way smarter about my poems than I am..

I had/have a habit of sending books out before they're ready. And then I edit with almost absurd intensity. But I've done about a book a year..

I think I cause a lot of headaches for editors - it's impossible to keep up with the ridiculous amount of changes I make..