I Believe People May Have A Predisposition

Poetry Connects You To Yourself, To The Self That Doesn't Know How To Talk Or Negotiate.

I Grew Up In Ohio, Where Civil-rights Accomplishments Had Already Begun To Accelerate Before Martin Luther King Appeared. In Hindsight, We Know That Many People, Black And White, Were Instrumental In Changing The Jim Crow Status Quo On All Levels.

I Was Apprehensive. I Feared Every Time I Talked About Poetry, It Would Be Filtered Through The Lens Of Race, Sex, And Age.

Going To The Library Was The One Place We Got To Go Without Asking For Permission. And They Let Us Choose What We Wanted To Read. It Was A Feeling Of Having A Book Be Mine Entirely.

I Think That When A Poem Can Move Readers Across Generations And Across Its Specific Class Or Race Then It Becomes Truly Classic.