Poetry Dovetails Contradictions.

The Phenomenon Of University Creative Writing Programs Doesn't Exist In France. The Whole Idea Is Regarded As A Novelty, Or An Oddity.

Poetry Seems To Have Been Eliminated As A Literary Genre, And Installed Instead, As A Kind Of Spiritual Aerobic Exercise - Nobody Need Read It, But Anybody Can Do It.

Given The Devaluation Of Literature And Of The Study Of Foreign Languages Per Se In The United States, As Well As The Preponderance Of Theory Over Text In Graduate Literature Studies, Creative Writing Programs Keep Literature Courses Populated.

Good Writing Gives Energy, Whatever It Is About.

Perhaps First And Foremost Is The Challenge Of Taking What I Find As A Reader And Making It Into A Poem That, Primarily, Has To Be A Plausible Poem In English.