I Carry A Notebook With Me Everywhere.

If I Begin Writing A Poem That Means I'm Intrigued In Some Way By Whatever It's About And That If I'm Not Trying To Find Something New And Pushing The Envelope In The Poem I Can't Expect My Reader To Be Particularly Excited About It Either.

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 Carry A Notebook With Me Everywhere. But That's Only The First Step.

Going To The Library Was The One Place We Got To Go Without Asking For Permission. And They Let Us Choose What We Wanted To Read. It Was A Feeling Of Having A Book Be Mine Entirely.

As An African-american, As A Woman I Think That I've Been Sensitized To The Way In Which History Privileges The White Male And The Way In Which Certain Aspects Of History, The Things That We Are Taught In School, The Things That Are Handed Down Never, Never Entered The Picture Though They Might Have Been Very Important.