April 7 Poem: Lucille Clifton feminist awesome


These are two poems by Lucile Clifton that I found on the poetry foundation website. I couldn't decide which one because these are both AWESOME! I don't know anything about this author you couldn't read in wikipedia. I deeply resonate with these words with the love of self and the mix of womanhood in it all.


homage to my hips

these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!


wishes for sons
BY LUCILLE CLIFTON

i wish them cramps.
i wish them a strange town
and the last tampon.
i wish them no 7-11.

i wish them one week early
and wearing a white skirt.
i wish them one week late.

later i wish them hot flashes
and clots like you
wouldn't believe. let the
flashes come when they
meet someone special.
let the clots come
when they want to.

let them think they have accepted
arrogance in the universe,
then bring them to gynecologists
not unlike themselves.



Lucille Clifton, "wishes for sons" from Next: New Poems. 1987 BOA Editions, Ltd.

Lucille Clifton, “homage to my hips” from Good Woman. 1987 . Curtis Brown, Ltd. (BOA Editions, Ltd., 1987)

Photo from: http://www.wexarts.org/get_involved/osu/?eventid=3739

Comments

  1. I am not a poetry person, but one time I found a Lucille Clifton book and I bought it and I loved it. Every word of hers just resonates deeply.

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  2. i KNOW isn't she amazing....her language isn't annoying or complex...so straightforward and bad-ass honest and still a tad playful..WOw!

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