I wake up with a sense of wonder. I don't dread the future. I like it.

Sunday is a likely day to write a poem. Because poetry is a piece of language flying around: you'll find notebooks, something on your phone. It's about finding them and getting them off that crumpled piece of paper and onto my computer.

Poetry always, always, always is a key piece of democracy.

The poet is like the earth's shadow. The sun moves, and the poet writes something down.

I was like the family clown. The middle child entertaining. I was a lousy student, but interestingly, the nuns always let me write plays or do drawings, endless special projects.

Fred Moten is a poet I really love because he changes who is telling the poem all the time.