I was actually a poetry major in college before I punted and decided to become a theater major. I wrote the poem that we put on the sauerkraut boxes in the style of Elling.
But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.
Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.
I've never read a political poem that's accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely what the poet wants.
One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to write poetry.
Dealing with poetry is a daunting task, simply because the reason one does it as an editor at all is because one is constantly coming to terms with one's own understanding of how to understand the world.
Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.
There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry.
Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.
There used to be a time - it isn't so much the case now - that vegetarianism was some kind of religion, and either you belong or you don't belong.
I don't know really. I've always been interested in the small picture instead of the big one, and I've always been interested in relationship pictures.
The relationship between Israel and the United States is a bond of - it's just a very powerful bond. It was, it is, and will be and will continue to be.
It's not the traditional promise ring. It's basically to always stay truthful. I think that's a really important part of a relationship, that you're always honest with each other.
Living in South Africa and periodically coming back to Kenya, my relationship with officialdom in Kenya was just insane.
So, I'm happy to do that because it's a wonderful working relationship but I will be going out for pilot season for half hour work and that's the gamble I'm taking.
I have an evolving relationship with my father, and his memory, especially the older I get. I know that some of the things that interested him are things that interest me.
I have a very long relationship with America. My mother grew up there and I felt to some extent that I partly belong there. I was schooled there briefly for about a year.
The one thing that about me, being a healer, I just have a different kind of relationship with people. So I am defiantly a different type of celebrity.
I feel like, on a more macro scale, there's started to be a relationship between filmmakers and people who watch their films - you know, on Twitter and on the Internet.
I'm finding that I tend to be one of those people who gets into very committed, long-term relationships, and then I really focus on that relationship and not so much myself.
The biggest mistake is believing there is one right way to listen, to talk, to have a conversation - or a relationship.
