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.

We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.

I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name

I believe that love is the single, true prosperity of any moment.

Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and Sister, that's why we supposed to choke our natural self into the weird, lying, barbarous, unreal, white speech and writing habits that the schools lay down like holy law.

Like running trying to live a good life has to hurt a little bit, or we're not running hard enough, not really trying.

That attitude that fighting is probably not fair, but you have to defend yourself anyway and damage the enemy, has been profoundly consequential as far as my political activism goes.