In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change.

Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak.

Guilt is only another way of avoiding informed action.

Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.

But, on the other hand, I get bored with racism too and recognize that there are still many things to be said about a Black person and a White person loving each other in a racist society.

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect....what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid? ...Death on the other hand, is the final silence...my silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.

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