Ann Beattie on writing poetry and stories

In the last paragraph of her story "Indian Uprising," Ann Beattie's character Maude, a would-be poet and maybe short-story writer, muses:

"Then winter ended and spring came, and I thougth, even if I don't believe there's a poem in anything anymore, maybe I'll writer a story. A lot of people do that when they can't seem to figure out who or what they love. It might be an oversimplification, but they seem to write poetry when they do know"(from the collection, The Accomplished Guest, hardback, 18).