The poetry of Walt Whitman. I can return again and again to these magnificent poems and still get pleasure from reading them.
I did not have a very literary background. I came to poetry from the sciences and mathematics, and also through an interest in Japanese and Chinese poetry in translation.
Pound's translation of Chinese poetry was maybe the most important thing I read. Eliot a little bit later.
The Language Poets are writing only about language itself. The Ashbery poets are writing only about poetry itself. That seems to me a kind of dead end.
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.
I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.
A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does.
If a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable.
I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think.
I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction.
Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.
Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.
Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.
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.
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.
The decision to write in prose instead of poetry is made more by the readers than by writers. Almost no one is interested in reading narrative in verse.
If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul.
Whereas with poetry no one has to show anybody really, and you don't have to tell anyone you're doing it.
The older I've got the less I find myself going back and re-reading or really reading new fiction or poetry.
Jazz and poetry both involve a structure that may be familiar and to some extent predictable. And then, you try to create as much surprise and spontaneity and feeling and variation while respecting that structure.
Poetry is not easy. Or should I say, real poetry is not easy.