The Writer’s Chronicle, and
The Rumpus, where she is a senior poetry editor. She teaches at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
INTRODUCTION
Being a poet has taught me the value of practice and patience. I have learned that my next poem will reveal itself to me if I simply follow language by engaging with it through my (mostly) daily reading and writing practice and if I wait for that small, persistent thing—a scrap of language, an image, a question that won’t leave me alone—that opens a door in my mind. I’ve also learned that—for me, at least—poetry is slow. I often work on poems for several years before they’re finished. This morning, I think I finally found the right form for a poem I’ve been working on for four years. Last month, I finished a poem I started working on in 2010. My poems spend a long time resting, waiting for me to come back around and try again to get it right. I’m not a particularly patient person in other areas of my life, so it’s been good for me to have to learn this cycle of patience—of setting things aside and returning, of putting my trust in the passing of time—through poetry.