I became more courageous by doing the very things I needed to be courageous for-first, a little, and badly. Then, bit by bit, more and better. Being avidly-sometimes annoy-ingly-curious and persistent about discovering how others were doing what I wanted to do.

You will never be able to defend your city while shouting.

I have suckled the wolf's lip of anger and I have used it for illumination, laughter, protection, fire in places where there was no light, no food, no sisters, no quarter.

In other words, I would be giving in to a myth of sameness which I think can destroy us.

Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each other for it rather than to recognize and move upon our common interests.

For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.

Learning not to crumple before these uncertainties fuels my resolve to print myself upon the texture of each day fully rather than forever.