There's A Sameness About American Poetry That

We Have To Embrace The Good Over The Bad. That Has To Be One's Personal Project.

I Think Of Language As Our First Music.

I Close My Eyes And Can See Men Drawing Lines In The Dust. America Pushes Through The Membrane Of Mist And Smoke, And I'm A Small Boy Again In Bogalusa.

I Originally Wanted To Embrace The Imagery And Forthrightness Of Rap Music. There Are Some Interesting, Dynamic Voices In Rap. But I Find Most Of It Irresponsible In Its Overt Violence And Commercialization Of Anger. As Artists, We Believe We Can Will Action Through Language. If That's The Case, We Have To Take Responsibility For What We Say.

Vietnam Helped Me To Look At The Horror And Terror In The Hearts Of People And Realize How We Can't Aim Guns And Set Booby Traps For People We Have Never Spoken A Word To. That Kind Of Impersonal Violence Mystifies Me.