Pat Parker > Quotes

“Sunshine

If it were possible
to place you in my brain
to let you roam around
in and out
my thought waves
you would never
have to ask
why do you love me?

This morning as you slept
I wanted to kiss you awake
say I love you till your brain
smiled and nodded yes
this woman does love me.

Each day the list grows
filled with the things that are you
things that make my heart jump
yet words would sound strange
become corny in utterance.

In the morning when I wake
I don’t look out my window
to see if the sun is shining.
I turn to you instead.”
― Pat Parker

“If I could take all my parts with me when I go somewhere, and not have to to say to one of them, 'No, you stay home tonight, you won't be welcome,' because I'm going to an all-white party where I can be gay, but not Black. Or I'm going to a Black poetry reading, and half the poets are anti-homosexual or thousands of situations where something of what I am cannot come with me. The day all the different parts of me can come along, we would have what I would call a revolution.”
― Pat Parker

“Fact is, blatant heterosexuals
are all over the place.
Supermarkets, movies, on your job,
in church, in books, on television
every day and night, every place -
even in gay bars.
& they want gay men & women
to go hide in the closets -

So to you straight folks
i say - Sure, i'll go
if you go too
but i'm polite
so - after you.”
― Pat Parker, The Complete Works of Pat Parker

“The loneliness of writing drives me nuts sometimes. Notice when it's going bad, it's loneliness and when it's going good it's solitude.”
― Pat Parker

“For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend
The first thing you do is to forget that i’m Black.
Second, you must never forget that i’m Black.
You should be able to dig Aretha,
but don’t play her every time i come over.
And if you decide to play Beethoven – don’t tell me
his life story. They made us take music appreciation too.
Eat soul food if you like it,
but don’t expect me to locate your restaurants
or cook it for you.
And if some Black person insults you,
mugs you, rapes your sister, rapes you,
rips your house, or is just being an ass –
please, do not apologize to me
for wanting to do them bodily harm.
It makes me wonder if you’re foolish.
And even if you really believe Blacks are better lovers than
whites – don’t tell me. I start thinking of charging stud fees.
In other words – if you really want to be my friend – don’t
make a labor of it. I’m lazy. Remember.”
― Pat Parker

“When i make love to you
i try
with each stroke of my tongue
to say
i love you
to tease
i love you
to hammer
i love you
to melt
i love you

and your sounds drift down
oh god!
oh jesus!
and i think
here it is, some dude’s
getting credit for what
a woman
has done
again.”
― Pat Parker

“Fuck her standing,
Fuck her lying,
Cut her throat and fuck her dying,
Dig her up and fuck her rotten”
― Pat Parker

“This is not a piece of paper, but my arm extending across all the damn miles between us to hold you and hug you with all the strength, we have had to gain from the pain.”
― Pat Parker, Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989