MR: Everyone loves to quote Oscar Wilde’s line about how all bad art is sincere. And it’s true, as anyone who’s ever read thru a slush pile knows. But good art can be sincere, too. Sincerity doesn’t have to be pious or earnest-treacly. Obviously my poems are not always sincere in the usual sense. But I think there’s a vulnerability to them. This is to some extent a reason for their vituperation—those who breach decorum most obnoxiously are often acting out of defensiveness and insecurity. They’re not at all sure of themselves or their place, so they act as if they don’t care. I was that way in high school and in my early twenties, and the poems are meant to rehearse those feelings in what I hope is a playful way. The personae I adopt in Alien vs. Predator do not always speak with sincerity, but they know that what is most sincere in speech is seldom what is actually said. I’m afraid of a lot of things, you know, and my poems often pretend I’m not. I think that comes through.
