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I think poetry was always where I went to deal with my deepest feelings.

Poetry was one of the things that interested me most as I was growing up. I used to write it in my head all the time. I still think the very greatest pleasure in life is to write a poem.

Poetry is something I love to do. Good poetry has an amazing ability to be communicative before it's even understood. I get emotional just from the beauty of words.

I realized poetry's the thing that I can do 'cause I can stick at it and work with tremendous intensity.

I read poetry to save time.

I was really drawn to spoken-word style poetry. I loved the rhythms, and for some reason, I was just drawn to this poetry as a way of expressing my feelings, because I didn't have any other outlet.

I made myself into a poet because it was the first thing I really loved. It was an act of will.

Poetry is what I've done my whole life. And every important thing in my life had found itself into poems.

For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history.