So much money's at stake that people get extremely nervous. As a film editor, you cut the picture to please the director. Then the producer makes you re-cut it to please him, while the director mopes in the corner. Then the studio has you re-cut it again, while the producer glares over your shoulder. So it's very difficult politically.
Writing is blissfully solitary and way less pressured.
Instead of helping other people tell their stories, I can tell my own stories, at my own pace, in my own way, from my own heart. The images in your book are very visual and unspool like frames on a film reel. Both film and poetry use images to tell stories. Poetry deals with these same exact issues. So in retrospect, the years I spent editing were probably great preparation for my becoming a poet.