Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. They publicly confess to being poets only reluctantly, as if they were a little ashamed of it. But in our clamorous times it's much easier to acknowledge your faults, at least if they're attractively packaged, than to recognize your own merits, since these are hidden deeper and you never quite believe in them yourself. Even a graphomaniac is an extremely complicated person. Even the worst book can give us something to think about.
Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison. I am near, too near for him to dream of me. I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again. I don't know the role I'm playing.