I grew up in northern California in a town called Fairfield, which is kind of exactly between San Francisco and Sacramento, a small suburb. And I'm the youngest of five children.

So much of my poetry begins with something that I can describe in visual terms, so thinking about distance, thinking about how life begins and what might be watching us.

Often it is a moment rather than an event that makes a poem.

time never stops, but does it end? and how many livesbefore take-off, before we find ourselves beyond ourselves, all glam-glow, all twinkle and gold?

Keetje Kuipers' poems are daring, formally beautiful and driven by rich imagery and startling ideas.

For me, a poem is an opportunity to kind of interrogate myself a little bit.

Everything that disappears/Disappears as if returning somewhere

History, with its hard spine & dog-eared Corners, will be replaced with nuance, Just like the dinosaurs gave way To mounds and mounds of ice.

When I was young, my father was lord Of a small kingdom: a wife, a garden, Kids for whom his word was Word. It took years for my view to harden, To shrink him to human size.

I've been beating my head all day long on the same six lines.

If I call it pain, and try to touch it With my hands, my own life, It lies still and the music thins, A pulse felt for through garments.

We all need to be mocked from time to time, lest we take ourselves too seriously.

My existence began the day you were created and was realized the day we met.

In any country where there is a dishonorable government, there is certainly a dishonorable nation!

Instead of looking at difficulties as deprivations, we can learn to recognize them as opportunities for deepening and widening our love.

Minds which never rest are subject to many digressions.

Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me.

Lies can destroy, but not create.

I love stories, I love myths, I love fairytales, I love Kafka.

Our office acts like a kind of educational establishment and we are very careful who we educate.

If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?