Crassly Put: When I Write, I Am

I'm Never Quite Sure How The Poem Is Going To Resolve Itself And That I'm Always In Some Way Surprised. I Make A Discovery In A Poem As I Write It.

As An African-american, As A Woman I Think That I've Been Sensitized To The Way In Which History Privileges The White Male And The Way In Which Certain Aspects Of History, The Things That We Are Taught In School, The Things That Are Handed Down Never, Never Entered The Picture Though They Might Have Been Very Important.

If Our Children Are Unable To Voice What They Mean, No One Will Know How They Feel. If They Can’t Imagine A Different World, They Are Stumbling Through A Darkness Made All The More Sinister By Its Lack Of Reference Points. For A Young Person Growing Up In America’s Alienated Neighborhoods, There Can Be No Greater Empowerment Than To Dare To Speak From The Heart — And Then To Discover That One Is Not Alone In Ones Feelings.

It's The Combination Of The Intimate And The Public That I Find So Exciting About Being Poet Laureate.

I Wish Someone Had Told Me That My Stories Are Really Mine To Tell. In Other Words, Anything That I Think Is Important Or That Has Moved Me Has The Ability To Move Somebody Else.