The more poetry you have in the head, the more poetry you will understand because you will be getting to the roots of what it is that makes people write poetry at all. |
The problem, for me, with the writing programs is that they produce a terrible uniformity of product. |
The reason one writes poems is so that your poem will be remembered. |
The relation between a poet and audience is really insignificant. What matters is the poet is hearing something that he is broadcasting. And whether there is anybody with a receiver isn't the reason he does it. He hopes there is somebody receiving it. |
The trouble with the performance poets is that they don't seem to have read anything. So there is not a real sense of the poetic tradition in their work. |
There are so many things that poetry is about, one of which is memory. |
There are some poets, and some of the good ones, who really act as careerists and go out and make a career, make sure they're well regarded. |
They need to learn poetry. They don't need to learn about poetry. They don't need to be told how to interpret poetry. They don't need to be told how to understand poetry. They need to learn it. |
Very often, what I find newest is something very old. It's just a little jingle, a little rhythm, a little turn, a little trope. |