More and more, I find myself moving away from the more conventional lyricism and narrative of my earlier poems, and toward something more elliptical, less linear, more fragmented. As for aesthetic principles, I recently determined that I like to take a little bit from the imagists, a bit from the confessionalists, some surrealistic tricks, some ellipticism, and shake with some chick music angst. Add a splash of lime. I write because it's something I'm reasonably good at (unlike math.) I write because words have a power, a resonance that goes beyond mere conveyance of meaning...a shimmer, a hum...how one word rubs against another and produces friction. I want to create something out of nothing--be it a narrative, a mood, or a single image. Different poems find their inspiration in very different places--phantoms, dreams, landscape, weather... My poems are often inspired by the tiniest, most incidental things; sometimes just an overheard word. Sound and rhythm, as well, play an important role in crafting a poem, and are integral not only to my own work, but my experience of that of others. I'm also interested in the notion of ecriture feminine, how to write not only of the body, but from the body. As for influences, I'd definitely say Plath and Sexton chiefly. The Surrealists. TS Eliot and Yeats. Also, the Brontes, both poetry and novels. And chick music of vague 1990's origins.