I was so sorry to hear about Lucille Clifton passing away. She was one of my favorite poets, and her use of persona has always been terrific – she uses the voices of everyone from Leda to Satan. I like almost everything in the Book of Light, but here are two great persona poems:
adam thinking
she
stolen from my bone
is it any wonder
i hunger to tunnel back
inside desperate
to reconnect the rib and clay
and to be whole again
some need is in me
struggling to roar through my
mouth into a name
this creation is so fierce
i would rather have been born
eve thinking
it is wild country here
brothers and sisters coupling
claw and wing
groping one another
i wait
while the clay two-foot
rumbles in his chest
searching for language to
call me
but he is slow
tonight as he sleeps
i will whisper into his mouth
our names
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.
NaPoWriMo Day 7
Yay, got an acceptance from Willow Springs of a longer (and somewhat darker) poem from my third MS, so that was good news.
And going to see Lucille Clifton in Seattle tonight! It’s totally worth the five hour round trip…I love her persona poems especially.
Update: My poem “Love Story with Fire Demon and Tengu” is up on the Haibun Today site today, Monday the 7th!
http://haibuntoday.blogspot.com/2008/04/jeannine-hall-gailey-love-story-with.html
She Justifies Running Away
Poof!
Mini-Review of Red Jess, by Judith H. Montgomery (Cherry Grove Collections)
Blood runs through the pages of Red Jess; the blood of a heart pounding out of control in “Gallop,” the blood of secrets in “Gretel’s Spell,” the blood of birth (and a red pen) in “A Cultural History of Fences,” and the blood of passion in “Ophelia, in Winter.” Nature plays a central role in many of these poems – flowers, trees and birds (especially the hawk) lovingly described – as well as the heat and burn of relationships. From “Gallop: “The day before she turns five, Amy hears/ doctors speak of her galloping heart…When she is alone, she listens for the horse/…for hoofbeats in her blood.”
