If you can't be free, be a mystery.

In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things

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.

I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?

My inspiration comes from everywhere, just walking down the street and I never know where it's going to come from, so I keep a notebook with me at all times and the only criteria for anything making it into that notebook is if it stops me in my tracks for even an instant, if it catches my eye or my ear and I just write it down.

It makes me furious to hear haters of all skin colors - especially Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalists - deride other people because of their different beliefs and lifestyles.

If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can’t imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America’s alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart — and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings.