poet Lucille Clifton

1936 - 2010

One of her poems -- "sorrows" -- is here.


Rita Dove said this about 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." 

Thanks to poet and novelist Cheryl Snell for bringing Lucille Clifton's poetry to my attention.