I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

Black women sharing close ties with each other, politically or emotionally, are not the enemies of Black men.

June Jordan once said something which is just wonderful. I'm paraphrasing her-that her function as a poet was to make revolution irresistible. Well o.k. that is the function of us all, as creative artists, to make the truth, as we see it irresistible.

When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn't matter whether you call it therapy or teaching or poetry.

Perhaps...I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am a woman, because I am Black, because I am a lesbian, because I am myself--a Black woman warrior poet doing my work--come to ask you, are you doing yours?

In the recognition of loving lies the answer to despair.

The sixties were characterized by a heady belief in instantaneous solutions.