It wasn't a deliberate decision to become a poet. It was something I found myself doing - and loving. Language became an addiction.

- Yusef Komunyakaa

Poetry is a kind of distilled insinuation. It's a way of expanding and talking around an idea or a question. Sometimes, more actually gets said throu…

- Yusef Komunyakaa

Poetry helps me understand who I am. It helps me understand the world around me. But above all, what poetry has taught me is the fact that I need to …

- Yusef Komunyakaa

I define poetry as celebration and confrontation. When we witness something, are we responsible for what we witness? That's an on-going existential q…

- 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 or listener should be able to enter the poem as a par…

- Yusef Komunyakaa

Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what we do.

- Yusef Komunyakaa

Poetry is a process of getting back to the unconscious. Hence, I am always writing-even when I'm not facing the white space. I feel writers are like …

- Yusef Komunyakaa

Tonight I feel the stars are out to use me for target practice.

- Yusef Komunyakaa