Lucille Clifton
A horn of plenty, if you just look for it
Thanksgiving is a good and necessary holiday but perhaps more so in times of want than of plenty. What is wanting this Thanksgiving 2020? We want to be together. We want our families, our friends. Most Thanksgiving celebrations are pared down this year with families separated by virus or politics, some permanently so, thanks to […]
MoreSailing away with Christine
As Poem Elf jumps back to featuring the work of guest assistants, Lucille Clifton’s “blessing the boats” provides just the right transition. In uncertain times, in the midst of a movement that takes us we know not where, Clifton’s words inspire excitement and calm at once— may the tide that is entering even now […]
MoreMinute Three
Day three of commemorating the last moments of George Floyd’s life: 4/30/92 for Rodney King by Lucille Clifton so the body of one black man is rag and stone is mud and blood the body of one black man contains no life worth loving so the body of one black man is […]
MoreMother’s Day poem blitz (ette)
It’s not much of a poem blitz when you only feature two poems (three if you count my giveaways) but this year I’m feeling a little disengaged from Mother’s Day, my mother being gone two years now. Even so, two poems are enough when they’re as good as these. I left Lucille Clifton’s […]
MoreA Greater Self, a not-so-nice Poem Elf
December 2012, a friend turning fifty hosted a celebratory tea at an elegant hotel, and I misbehaved. I had no reason to be disagreeable—every element of the afternoon was to my liking. My friend is British (I’m a sucker for Brits), a woman with the effortless good manners I associate with her country and the […]
MoreProbably too much information
Poem in Praise of Menstruation by Lucille Clifton if there is a river more beautiful than this bright as the blood red edge of the moon if there is a river more faithful than this returning each month to the same delta if there is a river braver than this coming and coming in […]
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