Welcome to Litsy!

I'll never feel comfortable gauging the quality of poetry when I know my reading comprehension of same is lacking. There were obviously strong themes of Black experience, Black trauma, talking about enslavement, genocide, racism. There were aspects of Clifton's life, being a Black woman, surviving cancer, and what I think were references to child loss and abuse. High on religious references, which are not my thing. 1/2

Wishing you all an ocean of days.

🎆🎇

Not a book I expected to find in a little neighborhood bookstore in South Park, San Diego. But I bought it and then had a nice conversation with the shop owner about Lucille Clifton. He said she was one of his favorite poets, which explained why this store in California carried her books. The poet laureate of Maryland.

Great poetry!Clifton lived through the heights of the civil rights movement.Her poetry covers it all, hope , despair, race ,class, family, the joys & pain of daily living. I had read her poems here & there , glad I took a deeper look.

The poems in this collection span her career and include some previously uncollected works as well. Themes range from the female body and how her own experiences included interference by male relatives, miscarriage, birth, motherhood, cancer, and more. There are some poems that comment on loss of loved ones or people who were killed in a more public way, as well as some events of political significance such as the bombing of the MOVE compound. ↘️