One Piece of Advice from Poetic Asides

Robert Lee Brewer is featuring, on his blog Poetic Asides, bits of advice he's received from poets that he's interviewed over the years.

Thanks, Susan Rich, for reminding me about W.S. Merwin's "Berryman," especially the lines

you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write

And thanks, Dorianne Laux, for reminding me not to write sissy poems. (I think I know what those are.)

And thanks Jeannine Hall Gailey and Diane Lockward, for putting it so plainly: embrace your weirdness.

But most of all thanks to Robert, for asking ...