Under such conditions I could explore very different ways of writing than I might use on the page. Another impulse that led me to opera was the excitement of collaboration. Working with other artists is not always easy. The pleasure is often mixed with anxiety and frustration. But collaboration heightens one's sense of involvement.
Poetry is a lonely art.
I often take a single poem through fifty drafts over several years before I ever show it to someone, and even then I may choose never to publish it. I was keenly aware that every syllable I wrote would be studied and weighed by the composer. Then every line in the final score would be sung by a real human being who would have to become the imaginary character suggested by the words. These were not demands a poet usually faces, but I found them invigorating. I would not have agreed to write a libretto, however, had I not loved the music of the composer, Alva Henderson.