I've spent so much time with iambic pentameter that I can now recognize it when I hear it in conversation or a movie - it's like a weird, useless superpower.
A line has to have a certain number of syllables, and the next line has to be its mirror image.
I don't think of poetry as a 'rational' activity but as an aural one. My poems usually begin with words or phrases which appeal more because of their sound than their meaning, and the movement and phrasing of a poem are very important to me.
A beautiful line of verse has twelve feet, and two wings.
In my opinion, it is easier to avoid iambic rhythms, when writing in syllabics, if you create a line or pattern of lines using odd numbers of syllables.
I think my love for rhythm in language comes from repeating the same words, the same sounds, over and over again day after day for so many years.
I write line by line, by the sound and the weight and the music of the words.
I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.
This is the feeling for syllable and rhythm, penetrating far below the conscious levels of thought and feeling, invigorating every word.
Assonance is not the enemy of rhyme. It helps us to respect rhyme, which has been spoiled by mechanical use.
