You should not judge; you should understand.

Our scars are the brightest parts of us.

In this truth, in this faith, we trust.
For while we have our eyes on the future,
History has its eyes on us.

Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell.

Change is made of choices, & choices are made of character.

Empathy means understanding others on their own terms and bringing them into the orbit of one’s own experience.

We might not be fully sure of all that we are. & yet we have endured all that we were.

Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.

The great responsibility I feel is to get people to put that power and that hope in themselves.

Empathy works so well because it doesn’t require a solution. It requires only understanding.

Poetry has never been the language of barriers, it’s always been the language of bridges.

Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.

I was writing since I can remember – I just didn’t know it was poetry yet, or that writing could be a career.

Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.

The oration of poetry, I consider to be its own art form and tradition.

You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.