Nikki Giovanni provides the foreword, adolescents from San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and the Bronx, the verse-in Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems from WritersCorps. ""Why don't you paint me/ Like ...

ALI: And as you lie on the floor while the ref counts 10, you pray that you won't have to fight me again. ALI: For I am the man this poem is about, the next champ of the world, there isn't a doubt.

Read Part 1: ‘I Am the Bridge ... it was still taxing for me to memorize,” she said. In time, she committed to memory not only the lines of the seven-minute poem, but also her cues ...