Two of my fave poets emailing each other about lots of cool stuff

Re: the typing of poems, I think I told Conrad this already, but I do this a lot. I have probably typed most of Wallace Stevens's long poems, and I typed several (including a collab by Anne Waldman and Eileen Myles) recently for the collab anthology, and when I was working on the Joan Murray thesis I wrote out her whole book by hand, then also typed it. I type and retype my own drafts, after writing first in longhand, using a manual typewriter. Manuals are even better (I think) than computer typing for revisions (because you can feel it on a manual, which requires a more deliberate motion of the hands to operate, more pressure, better for noticing when something is off or awry or which extraneous words can just be dropped away), but computer keyboards are best for really getting a good reading of squirmy or drifting long poem, because you can go almost as fast as you read with the inner voice.

You have probably noticed this effect when typing in a poem to quote in a review or paper, yes? How you must repeat each phrase and line to yourself in a loopy kind of way, looking back from the book to the screen (or typing paper) again and again so that nothing shakes loose, and it really gets in there. No? Go do it.

I've always thought of it as being similar to playing a piece of music. I don't play piano (well, not really, I can pick out a few melodies) but I do read music (bass and treble clef, thanks) and the difference between reading the music and playing the music is remarkable, of course. And different again from hearing the music played by somebody else. (Reading aloud is another variation on the "playing music" theme. The poem on the page always changes when it's riding the voice, eh?)

Anyway, this interview is freaking fantastic. I blew off work for like an hour just to read it.