my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender

somebody/ anybody sing a black girl's song bring her out to know herself to know you but sing her rhythms carin/ struggle/ hard times sing her song of life she's been dead so long closed in silence so long she doesn't know the sound of her own voice her infinite beauty she's half-notes scattered without rhythm/ no tune sing her sighs sing the song of her possibilities sing a righteous gospel let her be born let her be born & handled warmly.

The slaves who were ourselves had known terror intimately, confused sunrise with pain, & accepted indifference as kindness.

I'm a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people's lives.

Novels allow me to create a whole world.

I started writing because there's an absence of things I was familiar with or that I dreamed about. One of my senses of anger is related to this vacancy - a yearning I had as a teenager. . .and when I get ready to write, I think I'm trying to fill that. . .

my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender