The Great Watershed Of Modern Poetry Is

Poetry, Almost By Definition, Calls Attention To Its Language And Form.

Young Writers Only Take Off When They Find Their Subjects. Since Almost Everyone Has A Family And Stories About Family, That Is Often A Place To Start.

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.

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

When You Have An Idea For A Story, You Want Those Characters To Reach As Many People As You Can. I Think You Normally Think Of Prose As A Way Of Doing That. It Fits Our Time, The Culture.