All he did from freshman year through sophomore was react -- sneer$$$ laugh$$$ dismiss$$$ find fault$$$ demean -- a young man's version of critical thinking.

The sun and the moon shared the horizon in a distant friendship$$$ each unfazed by the other.

No gasp at a miracle that is truly miraculous because the magic lies in the fact that you knew it was there for you all along.

No more running-from nothing. I will never run from another thing on this Earth. I took one journey and I paid for the ticket$$$ but let me tell you something$$$ Paul D. Garner: it cost too much!

Everything I've ever done$$$ in the writing world$$$ has been to expand articulation$$$ rather than to close it.

Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother's voice took away all the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable$$$ it was sweet.

He read greedily but understood selectively$$$ choosing the bits and pieces of other men's ideas that supported whatever predilection he had at the moment.

I merged those two words$$$ black and feminist$$$ because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes.

Sifting daylight dissolves the memory$$$ turns it into dust motes floating in light.

Certain seeds it will not nurture$$$ certain fruit it will not bear and when the land kills of its own volition$$$ we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.