Among The American Contemporaries I Read With

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

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.

The Idea Of Avant-garde Art Is A Very Suspicious Thing To Me, The Idea That Poetry Is New And It Keeps Being New The Way Chevrolets Every Year Are New.

One Of The Most Powerful Devices Of Poetry Is The Use Of Distortions. You Can Go From Talking About The Way A Minute Passes To The Way A Century Passes, Or A Lifetime.

I Don't Think American Poetry Has Gotten Any Better In The Past 35 Years. Oddly Enough, Creative Writing Programs Seem To Have Been Good For Fiction, And I Would Not Have Predicted That.