I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.

I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, but I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong.

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! True anyhow no matter how many Liars use those words.

I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.

We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean- so get yourself a little loving in between.

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.

I stay cool, and dig all jive, That's the way I stay alive. My motto, as I live and learn, is Dig and be dug In return.

Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break.

I look at my own body With eyes no longer blind- And I see that my own hands can make The world that's in my mind.

Gather quickly Out of darkness All the songs you know And throw them at the sun Before they melt Like snow.

Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust, Not for sale.

Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows, Help us to see That without the dust the rainbow Would not be.

I will not take "but" for an answer.

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.

That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are wise: Her bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes.