Writing can sometimes be exploitative. I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respect the privacy of the subject. If readers make the link, they have engaged with the poem.
My obsession with time informs my poetry so completely it is hard for me to summarize it. We want time to pass, for new things to happen to us, we want to hold on to certain moments, we don't want our lives to end.
If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.
In the past, poetry came in the form of spells and chants used to effect change.
Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena, using with its own unique procedures and tools.
An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive.
Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems.
No poem is easily grasped so why should any reader expect fast results?
I have always been very obsessed with time. Time's passage makes us all very vulnerable and because we all experience it in our own way, it can make us feel very alone.