Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton was an American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth27 June 1936
CityDepew, NY
CountryUnited States of America
mean knowing water
I keep hearing tree talk water words and i keep knowing what they mean.
art play safety
You cannot play for safety and make art.
knowing wonder
Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing.
art writing thinking
don’t write out of what I know; I write out of what I wonder. I think most artists create art in order to explore, not to give the answers. Poetry and art are not about answers to me; they are about questions.
team beer men
the lost women I need to know their names those women I would have walked with, jauntily the way men go in groups swinging their arms, and the ones those sweating women whom I would have joined After a hard game to chew the fat what would we have called each other laughing joking into our beer? where are my gangs, my teams, my mislaid sisters? all the women who could have known me, where in the world are their names?
letting-go fall believe
the lesson of the falling leaves the leaves believe such letting go is love such love is faith such faith is grace such grace is god i agree with the leaves
life fall lines
Things don't fall apart. Things hold. Lines connect in thin ways that last and last and lives become generations made out of pictures and words just kept.
children growing-up people
All people, even one's own children, come with baggage. When they're little, you have to help them carry it. But when they grow up, you have to do that difficult thing of setting their baggage down and taking up your own again.
celebrate kill-me
Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.
kissing wind may
may you kiss the wind then turn from it certain that it will love your back
black magic want
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
beautiful clear
Say it clear, and it will be beautiful.
writing care poet
To be a good poet, you must care more about the writing, than the writer.
hands bridges everyday
won't you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself? i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.