very important warnings from the elders against teaching - stolen from the volta blog // "at the expense of your so-called soul..."

“I don’t want to know how I write poetry. Poetry is dangerous: talking too much about it, like naming your gods, brings bad luck. I believe that most poets will go to almost any lengths to conceal their own reluctant, scanty insights both from others and from themselves. Paying attention to how you do it is like stopping in the middle of any other totally involving and pleasurable activity to observe yourself suspended in the fatal inner mirror: you may improve your so-called technique, but only at the expense of your so-called soul” (21).

Atwood, Margaret. “Poetic Process?” A Field Guide to Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Revised Edition. Ed. Stuart Friebert, David Walker, and David Young. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College Press, 1997. 21.