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... →
Robert Morgan
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... →
I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.
I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think.
I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction.
Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.
Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.
Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.
The fact that something is in a rhymed form or in blank verse will not make it good poetry.
What actually makes poetry poetry is of course impossible to define. We recognize it when we hear it, when we see it, but we can't define it.