This Life Is A War We Are

I Think That If You Use Something From You Life In Fiction, It Metamorphosizes Into Something Strange And Different. Afterward It Is Hard To Tell What Actually Was Part Of Your Life And What Is Part Of The Story Of The Fictional Character.

We Must Shine With Hope, Stained Glass Windows That Shape Light Into Icons, Glow Like Lanterns Borne Before A Procession. Who Can Bear Hope Back Into The World But Us.

Depressions, Local And Larger Strikes, Boom Times, Wars, Repressions, All Impact A Life As Do Epidemics Such As Aids And Pollution That May Take Years Off A Person's Life. We All, Whether We Like It Or Not And Whether We Acknowledge It Or Not, Are Impacted By The Racial Attitudes We Carry Within Us, And Experience In Some Form Every Time We Turn On The Television, The Radio, Go To A Movie, Read A Magazine Or A Newspaper, Or Walk Down The Street.

Every Poet Has A Certain Amount Of "stuff." That's What You Draw From For Imagery. The More Stuff You Know Well, Not Simply Intellectually But Sensually, Emotionally, Intimately, The Wider The Pool From Which You Draw.

My Grandmother Was Very Important To Me. She Gave Me My Religious Education. She Gave Me A Sense Of The Female Side Of Judaism, Of The Rich Store Of Stories And Legends Of The Women Of The Schtetl.