“Repetition also helped me depict the claustrophobia and exasperation of caring for an infant, especially when your body doesn’t do the work it is expected to.”

“I think of poems as a sort of dance between tension and resolution, where some images or ideas seem to raise the stakes while others provide a release or otherwise alter whatever dynamic is at play.”

“I think as writers, we understand and process the world through our writing, so it’s natural to write about loss.”

“I also realized that my narrator is a little bit of a scumbag, which has been wonderful.”

“I have purposefully not listened to that song again; the moment, as it is implied in the poem itself, was gone.”

“Endings are tricky because the poem needs to land, but it also needs to take flight.”

“I want to pay attention to the shock and beauty of daily things because once I do, they don’t usually feel mundane.”