Lucille Clifton and Other Accomplished African-American Poets
Lucille Clifton and Other Accomplished African-American Poets
I am a huge fan of poetry. It amazes
me how a poet, in a few stanzas, can capture an incredible moment in life, the
adoration of another human being, a disappointment of life, a hope for something
new. Some people are intimidated by
poetry, my first tip is to read it out loud.
My other tips come from a background in teaching/education. We use these strategies to help our students
better understand a poem.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
In general, I read a poem three times.
FIRST READ: just to read all the way
through and get an overview on the piece.
SECOND READ: is a check for understanding.
I might google the poet and learn a little about his or her bio. I might go to a site like poetry.com for such
information. I might google the poem
itself to see how others interpret the poem.
During my second read, I also circle words that are from a different
time period of perhaps a vocab word that I look up to make sure I have it’s
correct definition. Dictionary.com is
useful for this.
THIRD READ: I love this read the best!
By then, I have an understanding of the time period poem was written in,
a little about the personality and life experience of the poet, I have
highlighted words I don’t understand and looked them up. Now, third read, is about the emotional
aspect of the poem and my connection to what the poet is expressing.
One of my favorite poets is e.e. cummings.
Since this post is focused on black poets—I will just mention he was
writing during the 20th century and is one of the most highly
regarded poets of the 20th century.
I am very drawn to artistic experimentation in my own work and admire other
artists who also push form, etc. e.e.
cummings created an innovate person style.
Here
is one poem that I love. I am not able
to include the full text but you can read it here. It is title:
[i carry your heart with me (i carry it
in]
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/49493/i-carry-your-heart-with-mei-carry-it-inI love the elegance of this poem, the love expressed by the poet, and the
form of the poem which defies traditional grammar rules etc.
African-American Poets
Many of you readers are already familiar with the work of Maya Angelou and
Gwendolyn Brooks so I wanted to introduce a couple of new African-American
poets:
Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)
Lucille Clifton, born in 1936 in New York, was a prolific writer of
children’s books and poetry. In fact, two of her poetry books were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize: Good Woman: Poems
and a Memoir, 1969-1980 and Next: New Poems. She studied at Howard University before
transferring to SUNY. Langston Hughes
discovered her and published her work in his anthology, The Poetry of the Negro (1970) She was also selected for Poetry Foundation’s
Some of Clifton’s most famous poems celebrated the African American woman’s
body listed here:
“homage to my hips”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49487/homage-to-my-hips
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
Audre Lorde is another black poet I admire.
She described herself as a, “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.”
Her focus as a writer and a person was sexism, racism, classism and homophobia. She was the recipient of many awards
including being New York State’s Poet Laureate.
Some of her works include:
- A Burst Of Light
- The Black Unicorn
- Between Ourselves
- Our Dead Behind Us: Poems
- Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches
- The Marvelous Arithmetics Of Distance: Poems
- Undersong: Chosen Poems Old And New
- Uses Of The Erotic: The Erotic As Power
- Woman Poet—The East
- Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
More about her and some of her work can be found here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde
Please let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy learning more about these amazing poets.
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