“Friendship fails, Intelligence fails, Humanity: fails.”

The more likely we are to continue to define history as one long inglorious record of man’s inhumanity to man.

Although himself frequently a target of guerrilla decontextualization, a major part of the meaning of Michael Jackson’s life was to help balance the accumulation of horrors

An outrageous instinct to love and be loved blinded your arms to lines of propriety

In a rich moonlit garden, flowers open beneath the eyes of entire nations terrified to acknowledge the simplicity of the beauty of peace.

As life in general constituted much pain in the form of struggles against poverty, disease, ignorance, and emotional anguish,

The word ‘survivor’ carries a weight of remembrance that has broken the minds and bodies of more than a few men and women.

The ecstatic beauty and soulful grace of Rumi’s poetry inspires human hearts to believe in possibilities beyond the predictably fatal.

Upon the lips of babes asleep I saw light embracing light and so allowed my syllables to rest there as a prayer they might sing in their dreams.

Varieties of angels, like varieties of love, are many.

Millions cheer the warriorspilling blood across the ringwhile the one who stands for peaceis ridiculed and shamed.

The books are also a part of what I call the great continuum of spiritual literary dialogue that I feel has been in progress since human beings

From her gospel-singing mother Cissy Houston, her legendary pop-diva cousin Dionne Warwick, and her Queen of Soul godmother Aretha Franklin

Rainbows introduce us to reflections of different beautiful possibilities so we never forget that pain and grief are not the final options in life.

We are living in an era in which billions of people are grappling to promote communication, tolerance, and understanding over the more destructive forces of war

Change is one of the scariest things in the world and yet it is also one of those variables of human existence that no one can avoid.

Still willing to invest in art and poetry’s own uniquely explosive contributions to the great, and small, dramas of human history.

How does it so fail to hold our attention that we have to diminish it with the invention of cheap, man-made myths and monsters?

We need to remember that we are saved by grace when we fail. But we need to remember it much more when we succeed.

I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.

Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.

Washing your car and polishing it all up is a never failing sign of rain.

It doesn’t matter if you come from the inner city. People who fail in life are people who find lots of excuses. It’s never too late for a person to recognize that they have potential in themselves.

The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.