Jan. 3 : Lucille Clifton

To bring in the new year, I have chosen Lucille Clifton. “In contrast to much of the poetry being written today—intellectualized lyricism characterized by an application of inductive thought to unusual images—Lucille Clifton's poems are compact and self-sufficient...Her revelations then resemble the epiphanies of childhood and early adolescence, when one's lack of preconceptions about the self allowed for brilliant slippage into the metaphysical, a glimpse into an egoless, utterly thingful and serene world." – Rita Dove

Sorrows
Blessing of the Boats
I Dream of being white
It was a dream
two versions of "Roots"

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note – Amiri Baraka