The Older I Get, The More I

I'm Not Sure That The Benefit - As A Writer And As A Citizen - That I Would Get From Reading At Least The Front Page Of The Times Every Day Or Every Other Day Would Outweigh The Depression.

Poems Come From Ordinary Experiences And Objects, I Think. Out Of Memory - A Dress I Lent My Daughter On Her Way Back To College; A Newspaper Photograph Of War; A Breast Self-exam; The Tooth Fairy; Calvinist Parents Who Beat Up Their Children; A Gesture Of Love; Seeing Oneself Naked Over Age 50 In A Set Of Bright Hotel Bathroom Mirrors.

Many Poets Write Books. They'll Tell You: Well, I've Got My Next Book, But There Are Two Poems I Need To Write, One About X, One About Y. This Is A Wonder To Me.

Take Your Vitamins. Exercise. Just Work To Love Yourself As Much As You Can - Not More Than The People Around You But Not So Much Less.

My Poems - I Don't Even Like The Sound Of That, In A Way. Not That Anyone Else Wrote Them. But We Know That Only People Who Are Really Close To Us Care About Our Personal Experience.