I wonder if I ever thought of an ideal reader... I guess when I was in my 20s and in New York and maybe even in my early 30s, I would write for my wife Janice... mainly for my poet friends and my wife, who was very smart about poetry.

I've had trouble with criticism, I guess. It's hard to know what role criticism plays in either encouraging poets or in getting other people to read them.

I got married, other people went off. We had sort of another public-we were our entire readership for many years, and we were very excited by each other.

As for political poetry, as it's usually defined, it seems there's very little good political poetry.

From the big mountains in the north to the valleys in the south, all through my childhood and teenage years, my family would always holiday in Wales.

Whether it's at their job, or their family, whatever - everyone feels that they're stuck in some kind of struggle. The idea is how to find your way out of it.

I'm 23 years old. I might just be my mother's child, but in all reality, I'm everybody's child. Nobody raised me; I was raised in this society.

I dish the dirt out, and I can take it. But why should my mother and children have to take it? In 20 years, I have taken any number of stories, most of which are not true, without a murmur of complaint. But some stories you have to draw the line and say No.