I Cut My Teeth As

If I Am Going To Be A Poet At All, I Am Going To Be Poet And Not Negro Poet.

For We Must Be One Thing Or The Other, An Asset Or A Liability, The Sinew In Your Wing To Help You Soar, Or The Chain To Bind You To Earth.

Never Love With All Your Heart, It Only Ends In Aching.

My Poetry Has Become The Way Of My Giving Out What Music Is Within Me.

Dame Poverty Gave Me My Name, And Pain Godfathered Me.