Zora Neale Hurston said fear is the greatest emotion and I said, 'No my dear sister.' Fear will make us move to save our own skins. Love also makes us save ourselves, but it will make us move to save others as well.

I write to tell the truth about the black condition as I see it. Therefore, I write to offer a black woman's view of the world.

I cannot tell the truth about anything unless I confess being a student, growing and learning something new every day. The more I learn, the clearer my view of the world becomes.

And I cried… for all of the women who stretched their bodies for civilizations, only to find ruins.

What is the beauty of the haiku is that it is not simplistic. The beauty of the haiku I just said is very complex. It reaches all the complexities of our life on this Earth. Peace - that's a very complex idea, peace, so we can't get it as human beings.

Poetry is subconscious conversation, it is as much the work of those who understand it and those who make it.

So much of growing up is an unbearable waiting. A constant longing for another time. Another season.