How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?
I form very strong attachments to books I admire, or writers to be more specific. Usually it’s a relationship of unwavering constancy on my part. It can be towards elements of books, but more often than not it’s in relation to a work taken in total that I view to be exemplary in some regard. My last flirtation was with Stephen Potter, the English satirist, whose influence bled over into three of my books. I ask myself if I can justify adulterating these texts by bringing an ersatz version into the world, and one that is, to add insult to injury, gussied up with my pet obsessions and fears. My reservations about writing in such close proximity with another text usually gives way to my compulsion to just write the damned thing. I work in isolation, but often ask my friends for advice, especially if I am facing a barrage of rejections.
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