Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower steel, stitch, cloud and clout, and drumbeats on the air.

at a certain moment in social proceedings, I am on FIRE to leave: I have a leaving-FIT.

To be in love Is to touch things with a lighter hand. In yourself you stretch, you are well.

Poetry is life distilled.

Don't let anyone call you a minority if you're black or Hispanic or belong to some other ethnic group. You're not less than anybody else.

Life for my child is simple, and is good.

Words can do wonderful things. They pound, purr. They can urge, they can wheedle, whip, whine. They can sing, sass, singe. They can churn, check, channelize. They can be a "Hup two three four." They can forge a fiery army of a hundred languid men.