Poetry

"When I look out into the cultural landscape and the only time I see the mentally ill represented is when people are in distress, I can’t possibly see a reflection that gives me hope."

“My Spanish is my third birthday party, half of it is memory the other half is that photograph on the fridge."

Poetry is how we say to the world, and to each other, "I am here." Some of my most beloved poets -- Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Billy Collins and Naomi Shihab Nye -- talk about poetry as a way to document the world and our common experiences, to say what needs to be said in a direct, powerful and beautiful way.

My mother would have named me Kitt whether I was a boy or a girl, and often introduced us to people, saying, "I'm Eartha and she's Kitt," as if I completed her. And, in some ways, I guess I did.