“My writing process is a bit odd, because I work with lots of fragments (from different poems) for a long time before anything coheres into a presentable piece. I may start with a line that I know will appear in the middle of the poem, so I write it down in the middle of the page (college-ruled notebook paper, usually). Other lines may gather around that original, or I may skip to the beginning and work until I am stymied, at which point I will turn to another collection of fragments-too early to honor them with the term ‘draft –and work on them until I reach a dead end there, too. The process is similar to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, and yet I don’t skip around willy nilly–I’ll tend a particular corner of the poem-to-be until I’ve exhausted both it and me. In time–days, weeks, months–a draft will emerge, and then another, and another, until I can see the entire picture, and then the polishing begins. It’s a nerve-wracking way to work, because I have to dwell in possibility, walking through the valley of the shadow of failure, for a long time before anything happens that others could call Process. But I’ve found it’s the best way for me to cultivate the unconscious connections a bit longer, and it often happens that several poems will complete themselves in the charmed span of a single week.”

–Rita Dove, in an interview with by Robert McDowell for Poets.org.

For more: “Poets at the Dance: Rita Dove in Conversation”