It Is As If One

The First Line Is The Dna Of The Poem; The Rest Of The Poem Is Constructed Out Of That First Line. A Lot Of It Has To Do With Tone Because Tone Is The Key Signature For The Poem. The Basis Of Trust For A Reader Used To Be Meter And End-rhyme.

I See The Progress Typical In Some Of My Poems As Starting With Something Simple And Moving Into Something More Demanding. This Is Certainly The Pattern Of Weird Poetry.

One Of These Days I'm-a Make Me A Book Out Of You.

I Can't Picture Myself Starting Out Aiming To Do Anything Or Having Much Of An Agenda.i Think In Writing A Poem, I'm Making Some Tonal Adjustments, And It Took Me A Long Time To Allow Anything Like Fun Into My Poetry.

I Think What Gets A Poem Going Is An Initiating Line. Sometimes A First Line Will Occur, And It Goes Nowhere; But Other Times - And This, I Think, Is A Sense You Develop - I Can Tell That The Line Wants To Continue. If It Does, I Can Feel A Sense Of Momentum - The Poem Finds A Reason For Continuing.