How important is music to your poetry?
As I draft a poem, I read it aloud. So my first listener, besides myself, is my dog—he’s nonjudgmental and quietly attentive! But I’m mostly crafting with sound and music in mind, so hearing the words as I write them is essential. My mentor, William Matthews, said that the poetic line is like the bar in music, and “one composes by the phrase.” This is often in my thoughts as I work, as is Stanley Kunitz’s complaint that many contemporary poets aren’t “testing” their poems with their ears. “They’re writing for the page,” he said, “and the page, let me tell you, is a cold bed.”
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