In revising, I consciously shape the rhythm, tone, and texture. I also deliberately look for things to cut out. I rarely know where a poem is going until it is finished. In fact, if I know initially how a poem will end, I lose the impulse to write it. The current state of literature is always dismal, and yet literature gloriously survives.
Genuine poetry is both more timeless and more timely than the fashions of the moment.
I can't imagine that even the most indiscriminate cheerleaders of Creative Writing would pretend that we have anything happening at the moment comparable to the 'Twenties when Frost, Stevens, Eliot, Williams, Moore, Millay, Pound, Jeffers, Ransom, Cummings, MacLeish, Hughes, Crane, and H. D. redefined the art. There had never been a moment like that earlier in American poetry, so it's probably not surprising that it isn't recurring now. We have some superb poets writing today, but we no longer have the conviction that our best new writing is also our most innovative. When I am writing an essay or review, I carefully consider its current context. My opinions and approach grow out of the critical discourse surrounding the subject.