The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way.
In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things.
Every poem probably has sixty drafts behind it.
After you have written a thing and you reread it, there is always the temptation to fix it up, to improve it, to remove its poison, blunt its sting.
The whole joy of writing comes from the opportunity to go over it and make it good, one way or another.
Re-writing is different from writing. Original writing is very difficult.
Everything I write goes through a lot of drafts. A hundred rewrites is not unusual for me to go through - the last fifty maybe just going back and forth on a single line or word selection.
I find it hugely exciting to be dealing with another writer's language.
It's a maddening thing in itself to look at an old poem of yours. To translate it is even more maddening.
