My Favorite Poets May Not Be Your

The Poetry That Sustains Me Is When I Feel That, For A Minute, The Clouds Have Parted And I've Seen Ecstasy Or Something

Courage Has Nothing To Do With Our Determination To Be Great. It Has To Do With What We Decide In That Moment When We Are Called Upon To Be More.

To Me, A Poem Is Almost Like Someone Whispering To Another Person, Or You Hear The Whispering In Your Head. I Hope With My Own Poems That The Reader Feels A Connection, Soul To Soul, That'll Help Us All Feel A Little Less Alone On The Planet. And It Does Have The Power To Direct Change. A Writer Can Make The Word 'dark' Be Something Positive. You Can Relieve A Word Like 'hysterical' Of Its Misogynistic Implications. You Can Make The Language Your Own. That's What Poetry Is About.

I Think That When A Poem Can Move Readers Across Generations And Across Its Specific Class Or Race Then It Becomes Truly Classic.

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.