One of my graduate school professors, to whom I started sending poems when I started writing again after a 10-year hiatus, suggested I prepare a book manuscript which he could send to publishers for me.

There’s more beauty on Earth than I can bear.

Since she seen Fortune head in that big pot Miss Lydia say that room make her feel ill, sick with the thought of boiling human broth. I wonder how she think it make me feel?...

I had a lot of hatred, but I realized that kind of hate didn’t do much. I had to start fueling myself with pride. We owe the ancestors that. So many of the souls who...

Back when I was in college, people used to talk about the alienation of the artist, not ever quite fitting in any place.

After you kind of find your footing, sonnets are what comes easiest.

Many performance poets seem to believe that yelling a poem makes it comprehensible. They are wrong.

Writing in form is a way of developing your thinking – your thinking along with the tradition. In a way, it’s not you alone, it’s you in partnership.

For much of my life – my sister and I have talked about this – when we moved, we just thought the world behind us disappeared, and all of the people, they just didn’t exist...