Poetry Writing as a Partnership with Language

The process of writing a poem involves listening to the language to determine its meter, form, and whether it should be rhymed. The poet feels that they are in a partnership, a collaboration with language itself, where the language has 51% share and can outvote the poet. The poem tells the poet the shape it wants to take. Writing a poem is often about waiting for inspiration and allowing different elements to come together - an idea, an exact word, and a memory - which have a catalytic effect. The poet physically feels inspiration as a burning sensation, and when inspired, they write in a trance, often ending up with a complete mess which needs to be shaped into the desired form.