I Knew Life Began Where I Stood

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.

Poetry Is A Process Of Getting Back To The Unconscious. Hence, I Am Always Writing-even When I'm Not Facing The White Space. I Feel Writers Are Like Reservoirs Of Images. We Take In What Is Around Us.

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.

I Close My Eyes And Can See Men Drawing Lines In The Dust. America Pushes Through The Membrane Of Mist And Smoke, And I'm A Small Boy Again In Bogalusa.

I Knew Life Began Where I Stood In The Dark, Looking Out Into The Light.