EXCERPT FROM THE INTERVIEW

All that nattering that goes on in everybody’s head? That’s what poetry is trying to put a very fine point on. I didn’t have any exposure or experience with art as a child. I never took an art class. I didn’t live near a city. After a long time, I began to shed the possibilities of what else I might have become, but I was slow at becoming. Even now I think I would really love to be an arms control expert, but it just seems an unlikely prospect. I would like to be able to really reach in and grab somebody up by the hair roots who’s never surrendered a single breath to the power of poetry. Photo by Forrest Gander.