Rudy Francisco is a well-known spoken word poet, born and raised in San Diego, California. Over the years, Rudy Francisco has become my favorite poet and I hope this list helps you understand why. Here's 32 quotes that made me fall in love with Rudy Francisco~ courtesy of his 3 poetry books "No Gravity" "Getting Stitches" and "Helium."

"Helium" is Rudy's 1st full length collection poetry book, published by Button Poetry.trailsendbookstore

1. "Sometimes, I'm the mess. Some times, I'm the broom. On the hardest days, I have to be both"

2. "They say, you are nobody until somebody kills you. Everyday, it seems there is a new officer dedicated to making us famous. When we said we wanted the world to know our names, this isn't what we meant."

3. "I imagine her smile is where God goes on vacation when our prayers get overwhelming."

4. "Privilege is the ability to forget there are places where poverty is the only thing that isn't struggling to stay alive."

5. "I held you the way a boat holds water. I always felt us sinking."

6. "I'm still learning to love the parts of myself that no one claps for."

7. "I believe music is easier to digest than medicine, a good song can turn any room into a church and Whitney Houston's voice is all the proof I need to know God exists."

8. "Dear hands, I know you love writing poetry but you can't bring a metaphor to a fistfight."

9. "Trust is jumping into someones arm and knowing you won't have to pick yourself up when its over."

10. "Faith is doing what you love for a living and watching the bills pay themselves."

11. "I imagine, her smile will be so large you'll see it on Google Maps and know exactly where our wedding is being held."

12. "I have an odd fascination with sand castles and ice sculptures. I assume it's because I usually find myself dedicating time to things that will only last a few moments."

13. "I have solar-powered confidence and a battery operated smile. My hobbies include editing my life story, hiding behind metaphors, and trying to convince my shadow that I'm someone worth following."

14. "Someday, you will throw a penny inside a wishing well. It'll choke because your dreams are just too big for it to swallow."

15. "I was born feet first and I've been backwards ever since."

16. "Gather your mistakes, rinse them with honesty and self reflection, let dry until you can see every choice and the regret becomes brittle, cover the entire surface in forgiveness, remind yourself that you are human and this too is a gift."

17. "I'm afraid that if I let you see my skeletons, you'll grind the bones into powder and get high on my fault lines."

18. "I want you to bite my lip until I can no longer speak and then suck my ex girlfriend's name out of my mouth just to make sure she never comes up in our conversations."

19. "I imagine, when God made you, he cussed for the first time. He turned to an angel, gave him a high five and said: "Goddamn, I'm good!" You are that beautiful."

20. "If I was a Love poet, I'd write about how you have the audacity to be beautiful even on days when everything around you is ugly."

21. "I want to say, getting out of bed has become a magic trick. I am probably the worst magician I know. I want to say, this sadness is the only clean shirt I have left and my washing machine has been broken for months."

22. "Loving you was the last thing I felt really good at."

23. "You want to know how I got these scars? I swallowed my pride. It clawed it's way out of my mouth."

24. "How Did You Lose Her? I felt trapped, but another man looked at my prison and called her a church. Who would choose to be a jail when given the option of being a sanctuary?"

25. "There was a moment in my life when I couldn't tell the difference between a window and a mirror. I could look into both and see everything but myself."

26. "When I was in the 5th grade I knew a kid named Javier. He was black, which was confusing. He was an African American kid who spoke Spanish, loved country music, wore cowboy boots, played jump rope and had a look on his face that said: I wish a motherfucker would say something. None of us said anything."

27. "This is an apology to every woman I changed colors just to get inside of."

28. "In 1983, illusionist David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. He placed a curtain in front of the monument and when he pulled it down the 3,000- foot statue was no longer there. I think about how this magic trick has become too familiar. Liberty just vanishing without any explanations."

29. "When I call you brother, it means you have at least four fists during any fight you can't talk yourself out of."

30. "I am learning that a man is not defined by what he can destroy."

31. "In California, our freeways are decorated with signs that ask us to be careful about how we use the water. They hang like an eviction notice from the environment. I wonder how long it will take the planets to tell us we can't live here and the locks are changed."

32. "Remember, every year two million people die of dehydration. So it doesn't matter if the glass is half full or half empty. There's water in the cup. Drink it and stop complaining."