The Best Books Of Our Times Have

The Young People Have Mtv And Rock And Roll. Why Would They Go To Read Poetry? Poetry Belongs To The Stone Age. It Awakens In Us Perceptions That Go Back To Those Times.

I Tell Students They Will Know They Are Getting Somewhere When A Scene Is So Painful They Can Just Barely Bring Themselves To Write About It. A Writer Has To Draw Blood.

Philip Larkin Has A Tough Honesty And Sense Of Humor That I Find Irresistible, As A Contemporary Poet.

Maybe The Example Of Southern Fiction Writing Has Been So Powerful That Southern Poets Have Sort Of Keyed Themselves To That.

Poetry, Almost By Definition, Calls Attention To Its Language And Form.