Rap Is Only One End Of A

From The Time I Began To Read, As A Child, I Loved To Feel Their Heft In My Hand And The Warm Spot Caused By Their Intimate Weight In My Lap; I Loved The Crisp Whisper Of A Page Turning, The Musky Odor Of Old Paper And The Sharp Inky Whiff Of New Pages. Leather Bindings Sent Me Into Ecstasy. I Even Loved To Gaze At A Closed Book And Daydream About The Possibilities Inside.

One Definition Of Eternity Is That We Are Not Alone On This Planet, That There Are Those Who've Gone Before And Those Who Will Come, And That There Is A Community Of Spirits.

People Write Me From All Over The Country, Asking Me, And Sometimes Even Telling Me, What They Think A Poet Laureate Should Do. I Found That Immensely Valuable.

The First Book: Go Ahead, It Won't Bite. Well... Maybe A Little. More A Nip, Like. A Tingle. It's Pleasurable, Really. You See, It Keeps On Opening. You May Fall In. Sure, It's Hard To Get Started; Remember Learning To Use Knife And Fork? Dig In: You'll Never Reach Bottom. It's Not Like It's The End Of The World -- Just The World As You Think You Know It.

It Makes Me Furious To Hear Haters Of All Skin Colors - Especially Christian, Jewish, And Muslim Fundamentalists - Deride Other People Because Of Their Different Beliefs And Lifestyles.