To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way.

To believe is to become what you believe.

Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and identity: How can I be who I am?

I wrote those poems for myself, as a way of being a soldier here in this country. I didn't know the poems would travel. I didn't go to Lebanon until two years ago, but people told me that many Arabs had memorized these poems and translated them into Arabic.

The first function of poetry is to tell the truth, to learn how to do that, to find out what you really feel and what you really think

Our earth is round, and, among other things, that means that you and I can hold completely different points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show stars in your window I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, while mine, at the same moment, spreads beautiful to darkness. Still we must choose how we separately corner the circling universe of our experience. Once chosen, our cornering will determine the message of any star and darkness we encounter.

That a little child will lead us back to the child we will always be, vulnerable and wanting and hurting for love and for beauty.