If Our Children Are Unable To Voice What They Mean, No One Will Know How They Feel. If They Can’t Imagine A Different World, They Are Stumbling Through A Darkness Made All The More Sinister By Its Lack Of Reference Points. For A Young Person Growing Up In America’s Alienated Neighborhoods, There Can Be No Greater Empowerment Than To Dare To Speak From The Heart — And Then To Discover That One Is Not Alone In Ones Feelings.

-Rita Dove

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If Our Children Are Unable To Voice

Rita Dove

If Our Children Are Unable To Voice What They Mean, No One Will Know How They Feel. If They Can’t Imagine A Different World, They Are Stumbling Through A Darkness Made All The More Sinister By Its Lack Of Reference Points. For A Young Person Growing Up In America’s Alienated Neighborhoods, There Can Be No Greater Empowerment Than To Dare To Speak From The Heart — And Then To Discover That One Is Not Alone In Ones Feelings.

Topic

Children

Growing Up

Heart

To Me, A Poem Is Almost Like Someone Whispering To Another Person, Or You Hear The Whispering In Your Head. I Hope With My Own Poems That The Reader Feels A Connection, Soul To Soul, That'll Help Us All Feel A Little Less Alone On The Planet. And It Does Have The Power To Direct Change. A Writer Can Make The Word 'dark' Be Something Positive. You Can Relieve A Word Like 'hysterical' Of Its Misogynistic Implications. You Can Make The Language Your Own. That's What Poetry Is About.

Dark

Soul

Littles