Elise Hu

It's serious business.

So just because it's fun and just because you go six days a week, that is both separate from the time.

true talent factor and also the X factor that makes you insanely want to keep doing it above all other things.

Do you think that discipline that you were able to cultivate as a ballet dancer is something that has impacted how you approach your writing?

It has impacted how I approach every single thing I do.

Finding a discipline.

Discipline is discipline is discipline.

And understanding that you don't get the immediate payback necessarily.

And also that just because you've got a little flair with a certain shape of poem or turn of phrase or effect, you have to resist defaulting to that.

You have to become well-rounded in your discipline.

You know, you can be a kicker and not a good jumper, but you've got to learn to be a better jumper.

You were educated at Sidwell Friends School, the same school that Barack Obama's daughters are now attending in Washington, D.C.

Did it surprise you that Sasha Obama missed her father's farewell speech because she was studying for a test?

Well, I mean, let me tell you, you know, that is a very serious family.

And if you look at, I mean, if we really think for a minute about what it means to come with grace and integrity as young girls through those eight years and to parent with grace and integrity under those circumstances, it is really something to behold.

In your 2005 book of poetry, American Sublime, you wrote a poem titled Tina Green.

And I'm wondering if you could read that for us.

I would be happy to read it.

If you can tell us a little bit about the poem.

I was wondering if it was autobiographical.