I used to think that I wrote best when I had an emotional impetus, but now I tend to think that I write best when I'm in the practice of writing every day and my imagination is used to instant action.

I always found it weird while getting my BFA that professors would stress that the "I" in a poem may not necessarily be the writer, but I think it makes sense that most people assume that the "I" generally is the writer, as poetry writers generally do not explicitly set up protagonists or characters in the same way that fiction writers do, fiction being the literary medium that most people are most familiar with.

This is not to say that I don't write poems where I am not the "I" in the poem anymore; I do, but generally the "I" in my poems are a fictionalized me or a character speaking with my voice in the way a lazy dad reads a story to his kid. While I think that the drive to write poetry may begin with narcissism, successful poetry doesn't rely on it. In some ways, that's why I like playing with found poetry as there are so many beautiful fragments of things that focus the attention in ways I wouldn't think to.

As for your poems in Corvus, I have a clearer idea of what you mean now. I haven't dated American women for a long time, but when I compare the relationships I've had with Americans against my relationships with women who are not Americans, it makes me wonder if there's some cultural element that makes us less inclined to be intimate with each other. I don't mean less inclined to have sex, which there is some evidence for, but I mean to be open with each other and to recognize love/lust/desire/like as ranges of emotions rather than strictly defined words. This is something I've discussed with some good friends, who in general are in agreement with me, but they're hardly a fair sample as they're of similar disposition, age and attitude in regard to women as myself.

If you're writing about food and trying that super-low calorie thing, make sure that when you do eat you get enough vitamins, especially B vitamins and vitamin C, especially if you plan to continue smoking and drinking. I knew a dude that got beriberi because he existed solely off booze and got laid up for two weeks, unable to walk. Granted, his "wife" had just stolen all his savings, his house and his kid and refused to have anything more to do with him, but regardless, vitamins are important.