I've often thought, in this age, with its proliferation of poets and scarcity of readers, that more people should follow the example of Walt Whitman. All his life, Whitman worked on his great book of poems, Leaves of Grass. (If you've never read it, or if you've only read bits of it in school, I would highly recommend starting with the original 1855 version and getting to know this work. This is where all American poetry starts. It's a book that rewards study, becoming deeper and greater with each reading.)

Whitman tried to include the entire world and the entirety of humanity in this book, and he never stopped working on it. What would the landscape of modern poetry be like if more people followed this example? I think it would be an amazing thing to walk into a bookstore and find on the shelves hundreds of poet's best works in a single volume, a selected poems selected and perfected by the poet in her life. Each one polished and perfected to diamond brilliance.