"One major problem with the American educational system is that students spend too much time studying how to do something and not enough doing it," said Strand. "Too much time is being spent trying to make learning fun for students. Learning is hard work, and kids should know that it is."
When asked if anyone could learn to be a great poet, he said that he felt poetry was either something one could or could not do. He thinks that everyone can improve, but few can be great.
Strand said that the American school system teaches children that "everyone has a genius inside them if they only work hard enough. If you were to ask 99 out of 100 people if it has happened to them, you'll get the real answer. The reality is that some people are smarter than others, just like some are more athletic and some have better taste in clothes."
When asked which one of his poems he liked the best, he discussed "Orpheus Alone," a poem he wrote several years ago. When asked why it was his favorite, Strand seemed at a loss for words for a moment and then replied, "It's beautiful." He then gave a very moving reading of the poem at the audience's request.
His advice for dealing with critics was simple. He said that every once in a while an attack by a critic can lead to the growth of one's work. "If everyone loves you, you're not real," he said.
On poetry as a medium, Strand talked about the misconceptions many poets and teachers of poetry carry. While discussing free verse and the limits that have been imposed on it over the years, Strand said, "In free verse there really is no reason not to rhyme or to rhyme, but we usually stick to some accepted form which is not really very free."
Strand also described some of the exercises he gives in his workshops to strengthen his students' skills. One consists of taking an obscure poem and removing every other line. Strand then gives the incomplete poem to the students and has them fill in the blank lines with whatever they want to write. This gives students the structure of a solid poem to work with, but also allows them to express themselves creatively.
While discussing his workshops, Strand mentioned that workshops can be very dangerous. Many times, instead of offering constructive criticism, students metamorphisize into a kind of support group for each other and their bad poetry. Students generally are hesitant to offer any criticism of one another out of fear of receiving any reproach of their own work. If this is allowed to happen, the environment does not allow any growth of the budding poet's work.
--Mike MacArthur