54 Quotes by Yusef Komunyakaa

We were The Hottentot VenusDraped in our mothers' dresses,Wearing rouge & lipstick,Pillows tucked under floral& print cloth, the first day of spring,As we balanced on high heels.Women sat in a circle talkingAbout men; the girls offSomewhere else, in other houses.We felt the last kissesOur mothers would give usOn the mouth.

You can two-time satanBut you can't lick the Holy Ghost.

Putting my hands on.What April couldn't fixWasn't worth the time:Egg shell & dried placentaLight as memory.Patches of fur, feathers,& bits of skin. A nestOf small deaths among anemone.A canopy edged over, shadowplayingThe struggle underneathAs if it never happened

The place was a funeral pyre for the youngwho died before knowing the thirst of manor woman. Furies with snakes in their hairwept. Tantalus ate pears & sipped winein a dream, as the eyes of a vulturepoised over Tityus' liver.

I define poetry as celebration and confrontation. When we witness something, are we responsible for what we witness? That's an on-going existential question. Perhaps we are and perhaps there's a kind of daring, a kind of necessary energetic questioning. Because often I say it's not what we know, it's what we can risk discovering.

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.

Poetry helps me understand who I am. It helps me understand the world around me. But above all, what poetry has taught me is the fact that I need to embrace mystery in order to be completely human.

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.

Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what we do.