All I Wanted Was To Be A

I'm A Line-maker. I Think That's What Makes Poets Different From Prose-writers. That's The Main Way. We Think, Not Just In Sentences The Way Prose Writers Do But Also In Lines. So We're Doing These Two Things At The Same Time.

When I Wrote I Took On The Role Of The Despondent And Difficult To Understand Person. Whereas In Life, I Was Easy To Understand, To The Point Of Being Simple-minded Maybe.

Form Is Any Aspect Of A Poem That Encourages It To Stay Whole And Not Drift Off Into Chaos.

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.

Introduction To Poetry I Ask Them To Take A Poem And Hold It Up To The Light Like A Color Slide Or Press An Ear Against Its Hive. I Say Drop A Mouse Into A Poem And Watch Him Probe His Way Out, Or Walk Inside The Poem's Room And Feel The Walls For A Light Switch. I Want Them To Waterski Across The Surface Of A Poem Waving At The Author's Name On The Shore. But All They Want To Do Is Tie The Poem To A Chair With Rope And Torture A Confession Out Of It. They Begin Beating It With A Hose To Find Out What It Really Means.