8) What is your philosophy on writing and reading poetry? I’m always looking for the same things whenever I engage a poem—intent, accuracy, and integrity. For a poem to get my respect, I have to know it’s not an arbitrary thing, or an accident. I need to see a poem’s the result of the poet’s choices, even if they are choices I wouldn’t make. I also really value accuracy. It’s phenomenal when I’m reading a poem and it’s obvious the writer cared enough about the details to get them right. And it’s really important to me that the poet means the poem, that it’s not just an exercise in wit or form or vocabulary. I do my best to stick to all those principles when I’m writing, too. I probably feel even more responsible to those standards as a writer than I do as a reader.
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