About the Book: We Begin in Gladness
One of our most perceptive critics on the ways that poets develop poems, a
career, and a life
Though it seems, at first, like an art of speaking, poetry is an art of
listening. The poet trains to hear clearly and, as much as possible, without
interruption, the voice of his or her mind, the voice that gathers, packs with
meaning, and unpacks the language he or she knows. It can take a long time to
learn to let this voice speak without getting in its way. This slow learning,
the growth of this habit of inner attentiveness, is