Of course a poem is a two-way street. No poem is any good if it doesnt suggest to the reader things from his own mind and recollection that he will read into it, and will add to what the poet has suggested. But I do think poetry readings are very important. – James Laughlin

I think that concrete poetry seems to have, as far as I can see, come to a kind of a dead end. It doesnt seem to be going any further than it went in its high period of about five or six years ago. – James Laughlin

Concrete poets continue to turn out beautiful things, but to me theyre more visual than oral, and they almost really belong on the wall rather than in a book. I havent the least idea of where poetry is going. – James Laughlin