Has it ever occurred to you,' he said, 'that the whole history of English poetry has been de-termined by the fact that the English language lacks rhymes?
Considering the wealth of poetic drama that has come down to us from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, it is surprising that so little of any value has been added since.
I don't think I'd ever get any better as a poet if I didn't push myself, very deliberately, to grow. My best poems surprise me, as they should, but I fight them at every turn, possibly just because I'm stubborn.
If the poet spun for half an hour daily, his poetry would gain in richness.
Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.
I think that as long as you have other poets before you and that you can learn from them, then it's always open ended for you.
The beginner hugs his infant poem to him and does not want it to grow up. But you may have to break your poem to remake it.
The great watershed of modern poetry is French, more than English.
The logic of the poet - that is, the logic of language or the experience itself - develops the way a living organism grows: it spreads out towards what it loves, and is heliotropic, like a plant.
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.
