An excerpt from Carolyn M. Rodgers' "BREAKTHROUGH":


I've had tangled feelings lately
    about ev'rything
bout writing poetry, and otha forms
bout talkin and dreamin with a
special man (who says he needs me)
    uh huh
and my mouth has been open
    most of the time, but
I ain't been saying nothin but
    thinking about ev'rything
and the partial pain has been
how do I put my self on paper
the way I want to be or am and be
not like any one else in this
Black world but me

how do I sing some lyrics ev'ry most could dig but
don't always be riffin like twenty othas

    ev'rybodi's faintly heard, the trouble
is I tell you, how can I
sound just like and only my self
    and then could you dig it if I could?