I think one of the things that people tend to forget is that poets do write out of life. It isn't some set piece that then gets put up on the shelf, but that the impetus, the real instigation for poetry is everything that's happening around us.
I write short stories, and I wrote a play.
It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing.
To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet.
In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things.
Without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not restricted to the arts. Every scientist I have met who has been a success has had to imagine.
