* 'How many times must a man look up, Before he can see the sky? How many ears must one man have, Before he can hear people cry?'
* 'I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.'
* 'And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people maybe more, People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening.'
* 'It's four in the morning, the end of December, I'm writing you now just to see if you're better. New York is cold, but I like where I'm living, There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.'
* 'All along the South-bound odyssey, the train pulls out of Kankaee, Rolls along past houses farms and {fields;} Passing trains that have no name, freight yards of old Black men, And graveyards of rusted automobiles.'