“born into this black universe
a rare phenomenon
here you are, what have you seen?
is this all that life can be?”
Source: Sapling: The Beginner's Guide to the Art of Modern Poetry
“I watch the figure reach the peak
Head in clouds, no room to think
He gave the world a blissful wink
Took a drink, destroyed the peace
We watched the ships explode then sink
On cardboard screens, the blood-shed pink.
This is the way we choose to run things.”
Source: Sapling: The Beginner's Guide to the Art of Modern Poetry
“love is a broken boomerang”
Source: Sapling: The Beginner's Guide to the Art of Modern Poetry
“your tongue touches me
and a sharpened knife
twists my insides sideways”
Source: Sapling: The Beginner's Guide to the Art of Modern Poetry
“It does not matter to me:
wherever you are grieving
whether Paris, Damascus, Jerusalem, Bamako,
Mexico or Beirut or New York City
my heart, too, is bruised
and dragging.
There used to be such a thing
as melodrama
when feelings could be
made up,
but now there is bare pain
and sorrow,
a sense of endlessly missed
opportunities
to smile and embrace
"The other.”
Source: Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart
“Dear Aspirations,
Although you may change
Stay contemplative
Help me to dream.
I know my reality
May send you upstream
But you always come back to me
You help me maintain,
A Sense of wonder
A faith in possiblity
A fence to jump off
A grounded humility
When I'm lacking fulfillment
And lay wrapped in defeat
You say, "you are resilient"
get back on your feet”
Source: Seventeen
“Poetry is not all about good phrases and rhyme schemes, poetry is about poetry.”
“We have memorized America,
how it was born and who we have been and where.
In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.
We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.”
Source: Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
“Who were many people coming together
cannot become one people falling apart.
Who dreamed for every child an even chance
cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.
Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head
cannot let chaos make its way to the heart.
Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child
cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.
We know what we have done and what we have said,
and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,
believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become—
just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.”
Source: Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
“What mannerisms I present, employ,
Are camouflage, and what my mouths remark
To word-wall off that broadness of the dark
Is pitiful,
I am not brave at all.”
Source: Selected poems