Rae Armantrout

Generally it takes me quite a while to write even a short poem. A month might be average. Language begins to accrete around an initially vague impression. The process of turning the gathered material into a "poem" is usually one of seeing potential connections between the previously discrete lines or sections. However, "Through Walls," a relatively long poem for me, was written continuously in the space of a rather charged hour and a half. I wish I could do that more often.