If We Really Want To Be Full

For Many Years, I Thought A Poem Was A Whisper Overheard, Not An Aria Heard.

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.

By Making Us Stop For A Moment, Poetry Gives Us An Opportunity To Think About Ourselves As Human Beings On This Planet And What We Mean To Each Other.

The American Dream Is A Phrase We'll Have To Wrestle With All Of Our Lives. It Means A Lot Of Things To Different People. I Think We're Redefining It Now