A Crack in the Universe

A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him.

        --Dylan Thomas

I think this is true. I want a poem to do more than be what I call “Andy Rooney poetry” – poetry that asks, wryly or sentimentally or iconoclastically or philosophically, “Didja ever notice…?” I look for poems that are a conduit to a different and unsettling reality. I want a poem to open a crack in consciousness and change the world, one reader’s perception at a time. Nothing else is worth writing.