When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?
I go to my first poetry loves—Robert Bly, William Stafford, the Beats, Ann Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson. Actually, it depends what I am working on, what my soul yearns for that day or week or month. Last winter I re-read pretty much all of Bob Hicok’s poems. Right after that, I began reading The Poems of Emily Dickinson from start to finish. I’ve been reading her poems since I was fourteen, but I wanted to read them in the order she wrote them—to enter her poetry ‘workshop.’ I follow my bliss in this regard, revisiting books that have spoken to me deeply and resonantly.
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