I read my poems from two perspectives. First, the personal perspective that makes me very happy if I feel that a piece of who I am and how I think has somehow managed to take on a form of existence that does not depend upon my biological existence in the world. Next, the critical perspective that gives me no benefit of the doubt for being me, but assesses the poem through the eyes of a reader who doesn't know me or care whether a piece of who I am is preserved. Some of my own poems can delight me when I read with a tilt toward the personal perspective, but the same poem can disgust or disappoint me when I read with a tilt toward the critical perspective. The goal, of course, is to write something that satisfies both perspectives, since neither one without the other is worth a damn.
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