It's like living in a monastery or a convent. What does reading poetry by other poets do for you as a writer or as a reader? What does reading poetry, specifically, do for you?Ī: I think poetry has been my medicine during the pandemic, where we found ourselves obligated to spend time by ourselves, which for writers is not a punishment. Q: I know you read voraciously and really widely. There’s a few of them that I like, but I don't feel comfortable reading from those books anymore. I'm not really interested in those poems anymore. Those manuscripts are like looking at photographs of my childhood or looking at my high school yearbook.

Q: Did you go back to (previous poetry collections) 'Loose Woman' or 'My Wicked Wicked Ways' while you were pulling the manuscript together?Ī: No, no. 'Woman Without Shame' by Sandra Cisneros Knopf You really have to attend to it because it irritates you. For me, writing poetry is like when you get a little thorn in your heart, like from a little prickly pear. I have that urgency, but publishing's the opposite of writing poetry. I feel an urgency when I've got that - whatever’s in my heart - that I can't name until I have language. So I don't feel the urgency, once I write it, to publish it. I need to put it down, let it have its beauty sleep. But once I write it, I'm not ever sure whether it's done or whether I want to share it. I have to do it in order to make clarity of emotions, events and my life. The process of writing is something that I've been doing all along. So why is now the right time for this book?Ī: I never feel an urgency to publish poetry I feel an urgency to write it. You've said over the years that it's difficult to put poetry out there for open consumption by a reading public. Q: It's been almost 30 years since you published a book of poetry.

JUST LIKE THAT by Sandra Wells