I Worked At All Kinds

Poetry Dovetails Contradictions.

I Try To Write Everyday. I Do That Much Better Over Here Than When I'm Teaching. I Always Rewrite, Usually Fairly Close-on Which Is To Say First Draft, Then Put It Aside For 24 Hours Then More Drafts.

The Pull Between Sound And Syntax Creates A Kind Of Musical Tension In The Language That Interests Me.

I've Been An Inveterate Reader Of Literary Magazines Since I Was A Teenager. There Are Always Discoveries. You're Sitting In Your Easy Chair, Reading; You Realize You've Read A Story Or A Group Of Poems Four Times, And You Know, Yes, I Want To Go Farther With This Writer.

When You Translate Poetry In Particular, You're Obliged To Look At How The Writer With Whom You're Working Puts Together Words, Sentences, Phrases, The Triple Tension Between The Line Of Verse, The Syntax And The Sentence.