It was a specific conversation I had with someone. We were walking in a park... I forget who the statue was, but it was a man on a horse and the person I was with asked me if I knew about what one hoof up or two hoofs up meant. I had never heard that. But I recognized right away [that would be material for a poem], because it had to do with death. It had to do with something common, like statues or parks, and it had a kind of code to it that was interesting... I right away leapt on that as having possibilities for a poem. And I think after you've been writing for a while, you get better at recognizing what little thought is worth developing and what one is just worth leaving behind.