If A Poem Is Not Memorable, There's

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.

Some People Want To Call Me An Appalachian Writer, Even Though I Know Some People Use Regional Labels To Belittle.

Philip Larkin Has A Tough Honesty And Sense Of Humor That I Find Irresistible, As A Contemporary Poet.

One Of The Most Powerful Devices Is To Distort Time, To Go From Human Time To Atomic Time, Geologic Time. Sometimes You Can Actually Accomplish That, With One Unexpected Word Choice.

I Seem To Keep Returning To My Father In Poems Because His Personality Was So Extreme, So Driven. He Did Everything To Excess.