Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture.

Creative writing and literacy go hand and hand.

I wish someone had told me that my stories are really mine to tell. In other words, anything that I think is important or that has moved me has the ability to move somebody else.

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem.

I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day.

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.