On recent poems

There comes a point where sense — logical, rational thought — can only take you so far toward truth. When you reach that point, you have to trust that the illogical leap, the irrational image, will get you close to where you want to land.

Poets dumb down their work too much. While accessibility is important to me, I recognize that sometimes the only way to write the poem that needs writing is to write it knowing that people may or may not make their way to it when they see/hear it.

We have to trust our audience more. We need to not be frightened for their misunderstanding if we don’t fill in all the gaps.

Sometimes, it’s ok to write for other poets, or for a more poetically educated audience. One of slam’s downsides is that it’s made immediate general audience appreciation the be-all and end-all of performance poetry.

If I don’t leave you puzzled sometimes, leave you scratching your head and reading and re-reading poems to eke out all the meaning you can, I’m no better than Matty Furmanek or any Hallmark Card. People shouldn’t expect art to always make sense. Sense is only one source of knowledge, and I want to mine all sources of knowledge in my poems.

ETA: I just corrected the spelling of Matty Furmanek’s name from “Furmaniuk.” I realized when I was looking at it that I spelled it the way my almost-roommate at Harvard spelled his name, which he pronounced the same way. Zygmund Furmaniuk, aka Ziggy (of course). One of the smartest guys I ever met. He hated poetry. Maybe he was onto something.