I Believe That Love Is

One Of The Reasons I Came To Berkeley Was Because I Saw So Many Students Of All Different Colors Speaking So Many Different Languages And Ferociously Presenting All These Different Views. I Thought, This Is The 21st Century And I Want To Be Here!

As A Poet And Writer, I Deeply Love And I Deeply Hate Words. I Love The Infinite Evidence And Change And Requirements And Possibilities Of Language.

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.

Like Running Trying To Live A Good Life Has To Hurt A Little Bit, Or We're Not Running Hard Enough, Not Really Trying.

In America, The Traditional Routes To Black Identity Have Hardly Been Normal. Suicide (disappearance By Imitation, Or Willed Extinction), Violence (hysterical Religiosity, Crime, Armed Revolt), And Exemplary Moral Courage; None Of These Is Normal.