The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010
If you missed The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010, published earlier this year, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of this stellar and important volume. Included among the more than 700 pages are all 11 of Clifton鈥檚 published books, 69 unpublished poems, a foreword by Toni Morrison, and a brilliant analysis of Clifton鈥檚 work by prize-winning poet Kevin Young, who co-edited the work with Michael S. Glaser, Clifton鈥檚 friend and colleague for many years at St. Mary鈥檚 College. Each of those elements contributes wonderfully to this essential collection.
Toni Morrison鈥檚 brief introduction mirrors the clarity and incisiveness of Clifton鈥檚 writing, a fitting way to open. Morrison explains that readers love Clifton鈥檚 poetry because it 鈥渟ifts the history of African Americans for honor,鈥� 鈥減lumbs that history for justice,鈥� travels 鈥渇rom humor to love to rage,鈥� and offers 鈥渞aucous delight鈥� and 鈥渨ide love.鈥� Morrison also praises Clifton鈥檚 lyricism, courage, vision, and joy before emphasizing two qualities that many readers overlook: Clifton鈥檚 鈥減iercing insight and bracing intelligence.鈥�
That insight and intelligence are obvious throughout the collection, which opens with unpublished poems that show a young Clifton claiming her voice and subject matter, as in the second section of 鈥淭o Mama too late鈥� (page 18). Here, Clifton speaks to and for her mother, who burned her own poems because of the disapproval of her husband, who, as later poems reveal, molested Lucille as a child:听
Dear Mama,
here are the poems
you never wrote
here are the plants
you never grew,
all that I am
I am for him
all that I do
I do for you.
Clifton gives voice to others in her powerful first book, 鈥済ood times,鈥� which focuses on the lives and struggles of people 鈥渋n the inner city/ or/ like we call it/听 home.鈥� Clifton offers an intimate portrait of loved ones and neighbors whose lives are shaped by poverty, racism, and other cultural forces. In one poem, for example, she writes about women 鈥渨ho got used to making it through murdered sons/ and who grief kept on pushing.鈥� Her words and perspective are direct and unadorned, because Clifton writes with the authority of one who has not just witnessed but survived those losses. Her insight and honesty give the work its backbone, and as 鈥済ood times鈥� progress, she begins to sound like a matriarch watching over the whole community.
With each successive book, Clifton鈥檚 voice becomes stronger, and her 鈥渃ommunity鈥� becomes larger and broader. She embraces history and events of the day 鈥� such as the Kent State massacre 鈥� and skillfully balances personal and universal issues.听Clifton听records what she sees and knows, even when people 鈥渨ant me to remember/ their memories/ and I keep on remembering /mine.鈥�
Clifton pares everything down to its essence. She can look at any situation 鈥� addiction, illness, or injustice 鈥� and write with a clear-sighted understanding that demands attention and forces readers to become more aware. She also leaves some room for hope. In 鈥渜uestions and answers,鈥� from the book 鈥渜uilting,鈥� she writes:
what must it be like
to stand so firm, so sure?
in the desert even the saguro
hold on as long as they can
twisting their arms in
protest or celebration.
you are like me,
understanding the surprise
of jesus, his rough feet
planted on the water
the water lapping
his toes and holding them.
Clifton鈥檚 poetry is so engaging that anyone could read and appreciate her work, in part because it seems so simple. But as Kevin Young reminds readers in his Afterword, 鈥渢he collected poems鈥� is anything but.
Young presents Clifton as the complex, surprising woman she was: a winner of the National Book Award and the TV show "Jeopardy"; a writer who answers 鈥渙ur need for history or pride or praise鈥� but who 鈥渁sks a lot of us, too.鈥� Young provides lively analysis of each section, and he shows how one book builds and overlaps on another. He also highlights the poet鈥檚 courage as she faced painful memories and milestones: memories of her father鈥檚 abuse, her mother鈥檚 early passing, the death of her husband, her struggle with cancer.
Young鈥檚 afterword and editing meet the needs of sophisticated readers without losing anyone along the way. Clifton鈥檚 poems do the same thing, which is why they resonate with a broad audience and deserve to be read again and again.
Elizabeth Lund reviews poetry for The Washington Post and the Monitor.
