Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state of mind. Those who accept it are poor; those who struggle are middle class.

Death is a slave's freedom.

I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.

You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts.

The only advice [for new writers and poets] I can offer is to be yourself: not the self someone else wants you to be, but the self you are. Enjoy yourself and your life. But most of all travel and eat. That's how we learn.

i hope i die warmed by the life that i tried to live

And you will understand all too soon That you, my children of battle, are your heroes