American poet (born in Africa) who was the first recognized Black writer in America (1753-1784)
I do not mind admitting that I buy poetry partly for the sake of having it, and not necessarily for the immediate purpose of reading it. I read a lot of poetry but I am no font of poetical quotations. I do not absorb the pages that I read for purposes of reconstituting them later as witty, punchline-type zingers. I never expect to read every page of any of the many volumes of complete and collected poems on my shelves, but I do read from those books regularly. It is like having sacred texts and tracts at hand for that moment when faith needs some back-up. I open my large volumes of poetry with the hope that some miracle of text will rise up at random from those pages. Like all entertainment, though, the stuff is ephemeral, and quickly gone.
