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Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

I thought if war did not include killing, I'd like to see one every year.

We had won. Pimps got out of their polished cars and walked the streets of San Francisco only a little uneasy at the unusual exercise. Gamblers..

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings..

...talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

...there is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn. I'm not certain what the difference is, but I do know that if you butt your head..

Strictly speaking, one cannot legislate love, but what one can do is legislate fairness and justice. If legislation does not prohibit our living side..

The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning..

There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in black women. It's as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.

We, this people, on a small and lonely planetTraveling through casual spacePast aloof stars, across the way of indifferent sunsTo a destination where..

Some clichty folksdon't know the facts,posin' and preenin'and puttin' on acts,stretchin' their backs.They move into condosup over the ranks,pawn..

A Rock, A River, A TreeHosts to species long since departed,Mark the mastodon.The dinosaur, who left dry tokensOf their sojourn hereOn our planet..

Your hands easyweight, teasing the beeshived in my hair, your smile at theslope of my cheek. On theoccasion, you pressabove me, glowing..

When you come to me, unbidden,Beckoning meTo long-ago rooms,Where memories lie.Offering me, as to a child, an attic,Gatherings of days too..

Her arms semaphore fat triangles,Pudgy hands bunched on layered hipsWhere bones idle under years of fatbackAnd lima beans.Her jowls shiver in..

They went home and told their wives,that never once in all their lives,had they known a girl like me,But... They went home.They said my house was..

Beloved,In what other lives or landsHave I known your lipsYour HandsYour Laughter braveIrreverent.Those sweet excesses thatI do adore.What surety is..

There are some nights whensleep plays coy,aloof and disdainful.And all the wilesthat I employ to winits service to my sideare useless as wounded..

The night has been long,The wound has been deep,The pit has been dark,And the walls have been steep.Under a dead blue sky on a distant beach,I was..

I keep on dying again.Veins collapse, opening like theSmall fists of sleepingChildren.Memory of old tombs,Rotting flesh and worms doNot convince me..

Your skin like dawnMine like muskOne paints the beginningof a certain end.The other, the end of asure beginning.

Give me your handMake room for meto lead and followyoubeyond this rage of poetry.Let others havethe privacy oftouching wordsand love of lossof..

When I was young, I used toWatch behind the curtainsAs men walked up and down the street. Wino men, old men.Young men sharp as mustard.See them. Men..

We, unaccustomed to courageexiles from delightlive coiled in shells of lonelinessuntil love leaves its high holy templeand comes into our sightto..

I've got the children to tendThe clothes to mendThe floor to mopThe food to shopThen the chicken to fryThe baby to dryI got company to feedThe garden..