Donald Hall's advice

American poet Donald Hall was named USA Poet Laureate in June, and interviewed two weeks later by Poets & Writers magazine. The short but interesting interview can be read at http://www.pw.org/mag/0609/newsbirnbaum.htm

Here's a snippet:

Any career advice for aspiring poets?
It's a life. It's a whole life. And my advice to young poets is pretty standard: Read the old people. Read the seventeenth century; don't just read the twentieth century. Sometimes, you get the impression that people think that poetry began in 1984 or something. And read the old boys and revise. Revise endlessly. Never show a poem to anybody else until you have worked on it yourself for a couple of months.

What are you most looking forward to about this appointment?
Probably the sale of my books.