In my opinion, Al Moritz may be the best poet of his generation in Canada.
I guess there is also an element of deliberate change involved. Each of my books has been, at least from my point of view, radically different from the last.
I do try to let what is obviously unintended yet naturally good stay in.
A sequence works in a way a collection never can.
I am certainly suffering from a modicum of performance anxiety.
I don't think there's anything wrong with someone having to read a poem twice. Or even a book.
I feel as though I've fooled the world into thinking I'm an adult and now they're letting me procreate.
I no longer feel pressure to produce fiction.
I still write the occasional short story, and poked at a novel once, but it's just not what I want to do.
I suppress the vast majority of what I write.
I think the main influence has been living in New York City. Aside from all the crap around 9/11, I find it very demanding to think amid all the noise and visual pollution.
I think, for me, humour needs to be used like a strong spice - sparingly.
I wanted to rock back and forth between myth and distant futures, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It felt a bit like prophecy and a bit like storytelling.
I was writing notes, but not composing poems. The Hunter began to develop out of this fragmented process.
I'm not interested in being easy anymore. Readable, yes. Easy, no.
It's a bit of a crapshoot out there with young writers right now anyway.
My self-editing process is intense.
I am still interested in the long or serial poem, but have written a few smaller things. I may start sending to journals again in a year or so... that's about it.
New York was breaking my concentration and disintegrating my thoughts.
The whole competition thing disturbs me. Not that I wasn't a part of it when I first started.
