There’s always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself – whether it’s Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. – because that’s the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
Key
When you label so much of what happens to you as ‘bad,’ it reinforces the feeling that you are a powerless pawn at the mercy of outside forces over which you have no control. And – this is key – labeling something a bad thing almost guarantees that you’ll experience it as such.
In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.
The key to wisdom is this – constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.
Unlike some, I don’t claim to hold the mystic key to the future. But judging from past events, it seems to me that those who want to prophesy the imminent end of America’s unique global role have a harder case to make than those who think we will limp on for a while, making a mess of things as usual.
I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.
A man who is ‘of sound mind’ is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
The other side of it is that, despite all that, people reach out to poetry at the key moments in their lives.
Understanding the long, sordid history of gun control in America is key to understanding the dangers of disarming.