So, poetry becomes a means for useful dialogue between people who are not only unknown, but mute to each other. It produces a dialogue among people that guards all of us against manipulation by our so-called leaders.

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

If we lived in a democratic state our language would have to hurtle, fly, curse, and sing, in all the common American names, all the undeniable and representative and participating voices of everybody here.

Behold the heart and mind of Angela Davis: open, relentless, and on time! She is as radiant, she is as true, as that invincible sunrise she means means means to advance With all of the faith and all of the grace of her entirely devoted life.

Maybe the purpose of being here, wherever we are, is to increase the durability and occasions of love among and between peoples.

Freedom is indivisible, and either we are working for freedom or you are working for the sake of your self-interests and I am working for mine.

My heart is not peripheral to me.