EXCERPT FROM THE INTERVIEW

Poems aren’t puzzles. They shouldn’t have to be puzzled out. Language is certainly its own realm, subject to its own rules, but it’s also rooted in communication that refers to the real world of survival, for both the species and the individual. If it were otherwise we wouldn’t have learned to talk. The real mystery is clarity, but clarity is nothing but the means to create a vivid continuous dream, an experience of the twin ancient powers of story and song that is unique to poetry. The internet could make this experience of poetry less cerebral and more physical and available all the time to everyone.