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I like poetry when I don't quite understand why I like it. Poetry isn't just a question of wrapping something up and giving it to someone else to unwrap. It just doesn't work like that.

I've been surprised to learn how many people love poetry. It's beautiful to see that people want poetry in their lives.

I like poems where you don't really know whether to laugh or cry when you read them.

I gave up on new poetry myself 30 years ago when most of it began to read like coded messages passing between lonely aliens in a hostile world.

So many poems you go into and come up empty.

If someone is alone reading my poems, I hope it would be like reading someone's notebook. A record. Of a place, beauty, difficulty. A familiar daily struggle.

I don't think anybody reads a book of poetry front to back. Editors and reviewers only. I don't think anybody else does.

Bad, quirky poetry might be better than some of the good stuff, because it really comes from the heart.

I like poems that inspire, that make us think and reflect. It's like putting love into the world for whoever picks it up.

They say poets write mostly for themselves; if anyone else likes it, well and good, if not, it doesn't matter; certainly, not to me.