It pains me to find out that Lucille Clifton, the beloved American poet, passed away on Saturday after a long battle with cancer. Clifton had a long, celebrated career spanning forty years, writing poems about what it means to be a black woman in America, to have the legacy of slavery lapping at her ankles, and what it meant to see her elders and icons have to bear the daily slog of being othered in a racist land.
Clifton is famous in the feminist community for poking at sexism with a short stick, most notably for “Wishes for Sons” and “Homage to My Hips.” Her narrative poems move me most, such as when she wrote about finding out she had cancer in the poem “1994.”
1994
i was leaving my fifty-eighth year
when a thumb of ice
stamped itself hard near my heart
you have your own story
you know about the fears the tears
the scar of disbelief
you know that the saddest lies
are the ones we tell ourselves
you know how dangerous it is
to be born with breasts
you know how dangerous it is
to wear dark skin
i was leaving my fifty-eighth year
when i woke into the winter
of a cold and mortal body
thin icicles hanging off
the one mad nipple weeping
have we not been good children
did we not inherit the earth
but you must know all about this
from your own shivering life
Many of her poems have an element of redemption, or a wish for redemption, as in the praise song “Miss Rosie.” Ms. Clifton cries for us to recognize our own worth,
What the Mirror Said
listen,
you a wonder,
you a city of a woman.
you got a geography
of your own.
listen,
somebody need a map
to understand you.
somebody need directions
to move around you.
listen,
woman,
you not a noplace
anonymous
girl;
mister with his hands on you
he got his hands on
some
damn
body!
And to be accountable for what tragedy results when we erase the humanity of others.
Sorrow Song
for the eyes of the children,
the last to melt,
the last to vaporize,
for the lingering
eyes of the children, staring,
the eyes of the children of
buchenwald,
of viet nam and johannesburg,
for the eyes of the children
of nagasaki,
for the eyes of the children
of middle passage,
for cherokee eyes, ethiopian eyes,
russian eyes, american eyes,
for all that remains of the children,
their eyes,
staring at us, amazed to see
the extraordinary evil in
ordinary men.
Such a beautiful woman, such an affirmational, reaching heart.
Dwayne Betts has a touching tribute to Ms. Clifton here, including one of my favorite poems, “Signs.” I will post more as I see them.