When he asks me what I’ve been up to, I rattle something about putting my attention to poetry this summer.  And Henry says, “I don’t know who said it,  but someone said, poetry is like someone running at you with a knife in a dark hallway.”  That stopped me in my tracks.  He was right.  Good poetry stuns, surprises with sharp clarity.  It is an idea I will take with me this summer, as I turn my attention from teaching to writing.