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Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft.

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.

On a practical level, poetry isn't something anybody has really made a great living at. I might sell some books and, once in a while, someone might pay to hear me read.

And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.

We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

I'm quite sure that most writers would sustain real poetry if they could, but it takes devotion and talent.

When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.

For a lot of people, well-meaning teaching has made poetry seem arcane, difficult, a kind of brown-knotting medicine that might be good for you but doesn't taste so good. So I tried to make a collection of poetry that would be fun. And that would bring out poetry as an art, rather than the challenge to say smart things.