Martin Ott
I got the idea for "Doors" while reading a collection of French surrealist poetry. A line from a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire made me pause: "Kings do not touch doors." Thinking about this a moment, I switched it in my head to: "Doors do not touch kings," and I had both a concept and first line for my poem.
My work really doesn't have much in common with the French surrealists, but I have been enriched as a poet for interacting with their work. Inspiration isn't just found in our lives and observation, but also in other poetry, even poetry that isn't like ours. The writing of poetry is a conversation with ourselves, our audience and, ultimately, with those poets who have come before us.