What actually makes poetry poetry is of course impossible to define. We recognize it when we hear it when we see it but we can't define it.

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

A poem in form still has to have voice gesture a sense of discovery a metaphoric connection as any poetry does.

One of the most powerful devices of poetry is the use of distortions. You can go from talking about the way a minute passes to the way a century passes or a lifetime.

I love to compare different time frames. Poetry can evoke the time of the subject. By a very careful choice of words you can evoke an era completely throw the poem into a different time scale.

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 and I would not have predicted that.

Some people swear by writing courses but whether it really helps American poetry I have doubts.

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

I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways taking away some of the excitement of poetry.