The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.

There is a timbre of voice that comes from not being heard and knowing / you are not being heard / noticed only by others / not heard for the same reason.

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

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?

Anger is loaded with information and energy.

I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigated pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk throught the rain.

Battling racism and battling heterosexism and battling apartheid share the same urgency inside me as battling cancer.