It Was As If Pain Were A

My Poems Always Begin With A Metaphor, But My Way Into The Metaphor May Be A Word, An Image, Even A Sound. And I Rarely Know The Nature Of The Metaphor When I Begin To Write, But There Is An Attentiveness That A Writer Develops, A Sudden Alertness That Is Much Like The Feel Of A Fish Brushing Against A Hook.

A Poem Is A Window That Hangs Between Two Or More Human Beings Who Otherwise Live In Darkened Rooms.

Sometimes Someone Will Tell Me About An Author I've Never Heard Of Before And That Will Send Me To That Person. That's How I Discovered Thomas Bernhard, An Austrian Novelist Whose Novels Tend To Be One Long Rant.

Love Doesn't Need A Reason. Hate Needs A Reason.

Baudelaire's L'héautontimorouménos Was Long Seen To Be A Sexual Sadomasochistic Poem, It Is Now Generally Accepted That The Poem Is About Writing Poetry.