I try not to observe myself in the process of composing a poem because I don't want to come up with a formula, which I would then be unscrupulous in using.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average.
I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.
I've been writing a lot of poetry recently. It helps me think and work things out.
Personally I always feel like I could use a little more of poetry apothegmatic power in my own work but we're always lacking something.
When I'm writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I'm doing it, as I'm writing it.
The thing is, I've been writing for a long time now, trying to be a poet for the last 40 years, and it's still very difficult not to second-guess myself when reading my own work.
I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.
I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to. I don't want to limit myself.
I find in my own writing that only fiction - and rarely, a poem - fully tests me to the kind of limits of what I know and what I feel.
You don't make a poem with ideas, but with words.