Jill, thanks for being with us. I'd like to focus on this bit of your interview above:
...Simon Armitage's work. I am a mad fan of his. He's my favorite—not just because I admire his poems so much (and I do! I do!)-- but because reading him taught me how to loosen the form so that the "flaw" (vis-a-vis a perfect rhythmic pattern) in the poem could heighten the dramatic tension of the piece as well as leaving the reader a little more satisfied with the sonic qualities of the poem. z.B. : Armitage's "To His Lost Lover." Form is best when it's fucked with. (Excluding many, many exceptions, of course.)
Tightly perfect form is kind of Our Thing around here, and I for one always figure I have a lot to learn about how to loosen up, and what exactly others mean by loosening up. So I wonder if you would say more about how the "'flaw'....that heightens the dramatic tension of the piece. If I throw in
a link to the text of "To His Lost Lover" would you say more about how you think "loosening" or "flaw" works in it?