Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.
Robert Morgan
Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start.
places family
It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation.. Discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience.
language experience
The Black Mountain poet I like most is the early Creeley. Those early poems seem very lyrical and very traditional, with a lot of voice and character.
character
Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places.
places character
I did not have a very literary background. I came to poetry from the sciences and mathematics, and also through an interest in Japanese and Chinese poetry in translation.
poetry science
I love chapbooks. They're in some ways the ideal form in which to publish and read poems. You can read 19 poems in a way you can't sit down and read 60 to 70 pages of poems.
I love to create interesting textures with language. You can do it as long as it seems like a discovery.
language
Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back.
poetry language
In the best fiction, the language itself can become almost invisible.
Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.
A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does.
poetry
I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that.
I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.
I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.
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