Dear Editor,
Good idea to experiment with interviewing poets about specific poems, but a bad idea to make it a regular practice. It sounds like people talking about footnotes. Whenever a poem seems better when we're supplied with inside information, it's proved weaker. A further danger is tempting authors to sound pretentious, which none of the respondents in the March issue entirely avoided and some seemed to enjoy.
Robert King was born in Denver and earned an MA from Colorado State University and a PhD from the University of Iowa. He retired from the University of North Dakota as Professor Emeritus in 1995. His poems, short fiction, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Poetry, The Missouri Review, South Dakota Review, and Weber Studies.
King's book of prose, Stepping Twice …