I Was Appointed Poet Laureate. It Came

I See A Resurgence Of Interest In Poetry. I Am Less Optimistic About The Prospects For The Arts When It Comes To Federal Funding.

It's Unfortunate That Sometimes In Schools, There's This Need To Have Things Quantified And Graded.

Instead Of Trying To Come Up And Pontificate On What Literature Is, You Need To Talk With Children, To Teachers, And Make Sure They Get Poetry In The Curriculum Early.

The First Book: Go Ahead, It Won't Bite. Well... Maybe A Little. More A Nip, Like. A Tingle. It's Pleasurable, Really. You See, It Keeps On Opening. You May Fall In. Sure, It's Hard To Get Started; Remember Learning To Use Knife And Fork? Dig In: You'll Never Reach Bottom. It's Not Like It's The End Of The World -- Just The World As You Think You Know It.

I Was Not Interested In Doing The Plot Of Oedipus In Blackface. I Did Wonder, What Would These People Have Been Like If They Hadn't Been In That Situation?... One Could Look At Oedipus, Or At My Character Augustus, As A Cynical Schemer Who Did Everything Because He Was Hungry For Power. But That's Just Too Easy. I'm More Interested In How Humans Can Embody Conflicting Goals And Emotions.