Distance Not Only Gives Nostalgia, But Perspective,

Teaching Writing Over The Years Intrudes On Your Own Writing In Important Ways, Taking Away Some Of The Excitement Of Poetry.

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.

Among The American Contemporaries I Read With Most Enjoyment Are Several North Carolinians. I Think The Best Poetry Being Written These Days Is Being Written By Southerners.

We Have A Lot Of Long Narrative Poems Written In The 20th Century, But They're Not Very Well Known, And They're Not Read By Very Many People.

Part Of What We Love About Poetry Is The Fact That It Seems Ancient, That It Has An Authority Of Ancient Language And Ancient Form, And That It's Timeless, That It Reaches Back.