Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.

There is always a moment in any kind of struggle when one feels in full bloom. Vivid. Alive. One might be blown to bits in such a moment and still be at peace.

You have to steal back yourself. You have to steal back your own mind. Meditation helps in that area.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader - or any person - in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

I started writing as a child. But I didn't think of myself, actually writing until I was in college. And I had gone to Africa as a sophomore or something, no maybe junior and wrote a book of poems. And that was my beginning. I published that book.

I think there is a sense of being forced at this time to look at America's really large shadow and that's not all that bad.

Not everyone's life is what they make it. Some people's life is what other people make it.