In the second of our speaker interviews, we caught up with Rives.

1) Once a poet, always a poet? Or, have you always been a poet? Or, one day did you just start?

I remember writing poems as early as age seven. But it wasn’t until the song parodies of my tween years that I really hit any kind of rhapsodic stride.

2) Does being a poet help you get laid? I mean, more than, say, being a web designer does?

If more poets and web designers did both, we could make a graph or something. Or you could make a graph — I’m busy that night.

3) You’ve spoken at numerous TED conferences. Are they as good as the videos make it seem?

The TED talks are about as good as the videos make them seem, and the videos in some cases are even better, what with all the fine camera work and editing. The conference itself is a have-to-be-there.

4) Your ideal dinner party. You and four others. Who would they be?

Of the four invitees, I imagine only Vincenzo Peruggia would show up. And I’d send him home with the leftovers. Really, I’d insist.

5) What’s your process for writing a poem? Do you need to be writing? Does it come straight into your head? Do you revise and edit a lot?

That’s a total of four questions, so: Private. No. Yes. Scrupulously.

Thanks Rives. I’m off to create a graph…