Like Running Trying To Live

There Is A Man Who Exists As One Of The Most Popular Objects Of Leadership, Legislation, And Quasi-literature In The History Of All Men. . . . This Man, That Object Of Attention, Attack, And Vast Activity, Cannot Make Himself Be Heard, Let Alone Understood. He Has Never Been Listened To. . . . That Man Is Black And Alive In White America Where The Media Of Communication Do Not Allow The Delivery Of His Own Voice, His Own Desires, His Own Rage.

We Do Not Deride The Fears Of Prospering White America. A Nation Of Violence And Private Property Has Every Reason To Dread The Violated And The Deprived.

To Believe Is To Become What You Believe.

I Am A Feminist, And What That Means To Me Is Much The Same As The Meaning Of The Fact That I Am Black: It Means That I Must Undertake To Love Myself And To Respect Myself As Though My Very Life Depends Upon Self-love And Self-respect.

I Wrote Those Poems For Myself, As A Way Of Being A Soldier Here In This Country. I Didn't Know The Poems Would Travel. I Didn't Go To Lebanon Until Two Years Ago, But People Told Me That Many Arabs Had Memorized These Poems And Translated Them Into Arabic.