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.
Yusef Komunyakaa
Related The words you can’t find, you borrow. We read to know we’re not alone. We read because w... GABRIELLE ZEVIN I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made ... RALPH WALDO EMERSON In every passing moment that is not appreciated time cannot give it back to you. So in moments of id... GARY F EVANS... It was pivotal in making you but you don't remember it. Or do you? Do we understand the events that ... DOUGLAS COUPLAND Each of us views life through a different lens. What we think is colored by the baggage we carry, an... LAURIE BUCHANAN, PHD Same first name as a president and an obscure comic book character. Half-Jewish. Excellent grammar. ... BECKY ALBERTALLI If we don't fear God, it's because we don't know God. CRAIG GROESCHEL We're actually doing something scripted that's totally, you know, we kind of know what's... JOSH HOLLOWAY In periods of rapid personal change, we pass through life as though we are spellcast. We speak in se... DOUGLAS COUPLAND I am aware that everyone that exists has a story, and we all exist because that story is important f... ARZELL Dae FATE NAYAE Nanagha Vandhuttoom Da, Sandy , Na Nata, London Lass,Russian Grapes, Ellorum Ippa Van... SATHESH KUMAR M It's mostly the financial chicanery that's going on. People are saying 'What kind of tru... MIKE FARRELL If it's about what I like, I like opera as a music and deathstep and dubstep. DEYTH BANGER Marathon Day in Boston and all of Massachusetts, it's Patriot's Day, and it's a big cele... ELIZABETH WARREN I find it irresponsible to go, 'She's an actress, what does she know?' That means if you... EVA LONGORIA We are not what we seem. We are more than what we seem. The actor knows that. And because the actor ... WALLACE SHAWN Memory is often - perhaps usually - a distorting lens: what we think we remember isn't the way i... GRAYDON CARTER Pro wrestling is not fake; it's sports entertainment. We go out there and we perform, and a lot ... KURT ANGLE If we all look at life we think how nice, then we look at death and everybody goes oh you can say th... GARY F EVANS... Air is approximately 21% oxygen, our brains feed off of oxygen. So basically we are all airheads. ANDONI GARCIA Inspired By Beauty In Creation We Are One DANIEL GILMAN Are shadows a shadowy reflection of the soul or is it a reflection of who we really are, or possibly... GARY F EVANS... We are this fucking stick in the end... DEYTH BANGER It's a journalist's job to be a witness to history. We're not there to worry about ourse... ROBERT FISK It's not worth it, it's not about money, especially when you're dealing with a culture. ... ANTOINE FUQUA And because of the reunion I think we've got more energy and enthusiasm than we've ever had.... GLENN TIPTON I know that often times a lot of people who work in music, whether they be labels and so on or even ... K'NAAN We are more than just flesh and bones. There's a certain spiritual nature and something of the m... BEN CARSON It's in our nature. We need to explore and find out what's going on outside of who we are. BILLY DEE WILLIAMS When theatre works, it's like nothing else, and when it doesn't, which is often, it's ex... SARAH WATERS With an independent movie, it's like, 'Okay I know what I want, and I got to go for it.'... DAVID TWOHY What love is it, then, that has no need of words to call us? In whose image are we made, to take suc... CHRISTIAN BOBIN It's like simulating earthquakes: we can over and over study a bubble, crash, bubble, crash. The... COLIN CAMERER And as an American colleague said to me several months ago, he said, 'I think the challenge in J... ABDULLAH II OF JORDAN We are taught to consume. And that's what we do. But if we realized that there really is no reas... RIVER PHOENIX He's a man who... well, one of the great things about Shakespeare is that his characters are inc... JEREMY IRONS I think controversy is not always a bad thing. Jesus was controversial. It's through controversy... KIRK CAMERON When we can't determine what is art - when you get to that point where we're not sure, that&... RICHARD PHILLIPS It's kind of my whole philosophy as an actor. I think that's what we're supposed to do i... GARRET DILLAHUNT It's very easy for people to say what's wrong with education in Arizona, but if I'm elec... DOUG DUCEY We all recall what is or was important to us and are astonished when it slips other people's min... RICHARD CORLISS Music is critical in our lives and culture. It's the inspiration that drives us. It's also t... BILL WALTON I think that when we're looking at things when we're right in the center of things, as oppos... JENNY OFFILL There's something really powerful when I, for example, hear Bob Marley's 'Exodus' - ... MATISYAHU The chimpanzee study was - well, it's still going on, and I think it's taught us perhaps mor... JANE GOODALL 'The Muthaship' was an experiment. All my friends are working at Endemol, so they just kind ... DREA DE MATTEO It's really a question of fairness and what kind of country we're going to live in. There ar... DAVID PLOUFFE I've often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it's ... ABBAS KIAROSTAMI On 'Late Night,' it's like we're all in on the joke. That's what I wanted it to ... JIMMY FALLON When we do an investment, we always ask, 'Can we affect the outcome? When buying a company, can ... DAN GILBERT Dying in childbirth is something that's not new; it's been going on for ages, and so it'... LIYA KEBEDE With a popular show, you know that there's expectations there, so that's a little nerve-wrac... AARON ASHMORE I think any black woman is a queen. It's just, do you know it? Do you see it in yourself? Do you... AVA DUVERNAY We need to have people who are talking about, 'Here's exactly what I would do differently.... BILL HASLAM Small Faces were really a soul band as far as we were concerned. That's what we listened to; tha... IAN MCLAGAN Because the Internet is so new, we still don't really understand what it is. We mistake it for a... DOUGLAS ADAMS We are what we are. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA When we are very young, our parents inadvertently program us to be what we eventually become. PEGGY TONEY HORTON I'm a professor of media studies as well as humanities, and I'm an evangelist of popular cul... CAMILLE PAGLIA I was very sure I did not want to be the stereotype of what Indian people are seen as, which is Boll... PRIYANKA CHOPRA I just really like Houston despite its craziness. There is a sense of energy and a kind of excitemen... GAIL COLLINS What I've learned, traveling the country and doing book signings, Mama's biscuits - you know... TRISHA YEARWOOD We feel more and more intensely about the music we make. It's unexpected, and not always what yo... VICTORIA LEGRAND But we're all so different, we're different ages; we're not vying for the same roles. Th... JEANNE TRIPPLEHORN If we find life out there, and it's not us, we will deem it not intelligent. But what may be equ... NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON Looking at America's history, ordinary people did something extraordinary. Leaders risked their ... SCOTT WALKER What we normally define as history doesn't interest me. It's a constraint. DAVID CHRISTIAN We are responsible for ourselves and each other. RODEL NATIVIDAD CASIO There's a lot of speculation on what the zombie apocalypse thing means. I have a feeling that it... MARK PELLEGRINO Empathy is a bridge. Our sufferings connect us. Let pain make you softer. AKIROQ BROST Outside... we are just nobody... you could meet me outside... but it doesn't mean that I am DeYtH Ba... DEYTH BANGER Come on... come on... I am waiting for answer... ... Silence doesn't make it... bet... DEYTH BANGER What, the glass is half-full instead of half-empty? Bullshit. What they don't tell you is that regar... T.J. KLUNE When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings. RITA DOVE We still go to nonfiction for content. And if it's well-written, that's a bonus. But we don&... GEOFF DYER We're all living blinkered lives, and we're not seeing what's going on and looking to ch... SAMANTHA MORTON I'm not a big, huge star, and so when people see me, it's usually to talk about something I&... JASON BATEMAN We've got exactly what we need to fulfill our destiny! ABHISHEK KUMAR There's no reason we can't all live harmoniously together, and that's what I would say t... CHUCK NORRIS I think there's a, you know, certain kind of freedom for me when I get on stage. Maybe it's ... LIV WARFIELD Armstrong described the lunar surface as 'beautiful.' I thought to myself, 'It's not... BUZZ ALDRIN When we went to Iraq, we stayed in one of Saddam's palaces. It was kind of creepy. If those wall... KELLIE PICKLER I said it's a cold universe and I don't mean that metaphorically. If you go out into space, ... DAVID CHASE Nobody can quantify for you what's the impact of eating fiber every day, for instance. We can sa... ANNE WOJCICKI There is a dessert dish in Austria called Kaiserschmarrn - it's kind of like a sweet raisin panc... LINDSEY VONN But, I'm kind of a control freak. I get really freaked out if I don't know what's going ... KRISTEN STEWART People see what they want to see SUSAN BETH PFEFFER As a society, I think we express our cultural mores through our politics. We're trying constantl... DANIEL H. WILSON I think that we all know what evil is. We have a sense of what's evil, and certainly killing inn... MADELEINE ALBRIGHT I think that half of us feel fraudulent in our lives anyway. There's that strange disconnect of ... CARRIE BROWNSTEIN I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something... BILLY JOEL But love is really more of an interactive process. It's about what we do not just what we feel. ... BELL HOOKS We're all trying to figure out what's next, what's best for our families, what's bes... STERLING K. BROWN Sex is... perfectly natural. It's something that's pleasurable. It's enjoyable and it en... SUE JOHANSON I'm really hopeful about the future of space exploration and human spaceflight. Civilization as ... ALAN G. POINDEXTER I do think we've become so reliant that the phones are never out of our reach. We're always ... CARLY POPE What we consider typical of the male is a question I ask myself quite often - it's relevant to m... ELLIOT COWAN We will either bring on another American century, or we are doomed to witness America's decline. MARCO RUBIO There's a lot of things that are good in Scientology, because I wouldn't have been in it. An... LEAH REMINI Often too many expectations are put on by society as to what we're supposed to look like and it&... DUSTIN CLARE
More Yusef Komunyakaa
Through the years I have seen myself as a peaceful person, but the awareness of the anger is part of... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I like what Oliver Lakes does on the saxophone. The saxophone comes pretty close to the sound of the... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I see many black males grasping for some thread of hope. There are so many destructive practices, gl... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA It took me 14 years to write poems about Vietnam. I had never thought about writing about it, and in... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I think of my poems as personal and public at the same time. You could say they serve as psychologic... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I excavate history. I look at lives buried under too much silence. Periods of time, like slavery, ha... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA It wasn't a deliberate decision to become a poet. It was something I found myself doing - and lo... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Students often have such a lofty idea of what a poem is, and I want them to realize that their own l... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what ... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Poetry helps me understand who I am. It helps me understand the world around me. But above all, what... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA My great-grandfather Melvin had been a carpenter - so was my father - and they taught me the value o... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA We have to embrace the good over the bad. That has to be one's personal project. YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Vietnam helped me to look at the horror and terror in the hearts of people and realize how we can... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I'm uncomfortable with the focus on the poet and not on the poem. YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I like connecting the abstract to the concrete. There's a tension in that. I believe the reader ... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I originally wanted to embrace the imagery and forthrightness of rap music. There are some interesti... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA You can two-time satan But you can't lick the Holy Ghost. YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA See how forgiving - how brave nature is. YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA I ate mythology & dreamt' - Yusef Komunyakaa (Blackberries) YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA We were The Hottentot Venus Draped in our mothers' dresses, Wearing rouge & lipstick,<... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA My music is jazz. YUSEF LATEEF When the soul looks out of its body, it should see only beauty in its path. These are the sights we ... YUSEF LATEEF Flowers, beautiful flowers, children, humanity, lovely, love, life, embrace all - please! YUSEF LATEEF I went out on the field as a peacemaker and got pulled into it. YUSEF KELLY