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

Anger, used, does not destroy. Hatred does.

I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.

Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is the one which is the most secret, which requires the least physical labor, the least material, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper. ... poetry has been the major voice of poor, working class, and Colored women. A room of one's own may be a necessity for writing prose, but so are reams of paper, a typewriter, and plenty of time.

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

How a diamond comes into a knot of flame How a sound comes into a word, coloured By who pays what for speaking. Some words are open. Love is a word another kind of open — As a diamond comes into a knot of flame I am black because I come from the earth's inside. Take my word for jewel in your open light.

Somedays, if bitterness were a whetstone, I could be sharp as grief.