I write a lot of poems about my parents.
They had a great effect on me.
A great influence on me.
And about my early life.
I write a lot of poems that I want to tell people something.
One of them that I like to read in any audience that
has black people in it, is a poem
that I wanted to write for my children.
They had read a lot of sociological things.
We've all read them right?
Sociological things that talk about the self
hate in the ghetto.
Have you ever read that?
Oh sure.
No you've never read that?
You're lucky.
I've read it.
And I didn't want my children to believe
that I had ever hated myself.
That my mother had ever hated herself.
I remember the neighborhood quite well
and it was a place of great love.
So I wrote this poem.
Listen, children.
Keep this in the place you have for keeping.
Always.
Keep it, all ways.
We have never hated black.
Listen, we have been ashamed, hopeless, tired,
mad, but always, all ways, we loved us.
We have always loved each other children.
Always.
Pass it on.
[APPLAUSE]