I try to be as kind to poetry as I can... the expectation of the poem is much higher. People really expect to read seven lines, and walk away from that better. They want to be healed. People really think, "Oh, here's a poem, OK, let's see what you gonna do. Fix me." You don't go watch Alvin Ailey thinking "fix me." You don't go to the museum thinking "give me wisdom.

By the time the bloomsUnfurl themselves for a few hours of light, the women who tend themAre already at work. Blue. I’ll never know who started the lie that we are lazy,But I’d love to wake that bastard upAt foreday in the morning, toss him in a truck, and drive him under GodPast every bus stop in America to see all those black folkWaiting to go work for whatever they want.

My mother grew morning glories that spilled onto the walkway toward her porchBecause she was a woman with land who showed as much by giving it color.She told me I could have whatever I worked for. That means she was an American.But she’d say it was because she believedIn God. I am ashamed of AmericaAnd confounded by God.

I think of myself as a descendant of traditions that would not have wanted me. Right? So, as long as I'm a queer writer, I'm Whitman's descendant. And he can't do nothing about it.