The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 Read online

  Copyright ©2012 by The Estate of Lucille T. Clifton. Foreword copyright ©2012 by Toni Morrison. Afterword “won’t you celebrate with me?” © by Kevin Young.

  All rights reserved.

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  First Edition

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  The publication of this book was made possible in large part by the Lannan Foundation.

  Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.—a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code—are made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the County of Monroe, NY; the Lannan Foundation for support of the Lannan Translations Selection Series; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester Area Community Foundation; the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester; the Steeple-Jack Fund; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide.

  Cover Design: Daphne Morrissey

  Cover Photo: AP Photo/Mark Linnihan

  Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Clifton, Lucille, 1936–2010.

  The collected poems of Lucille Clifton 1965–2010 / edited by Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser ; foreword by Toni Morrison ; afterword by Kevin Young. — 1st ed.

  p. cm. — (American poets continuum series ; 134)

  ISBN 978-1-934414-90-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)

  I. Young, Kevin. II. Glaser, Michael S., 1943– III. Title.

  PS3553.L45 2012

  811'.54—dc23

  2012014244

  Lannan

  BOA Editions, Ltd.

  250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306

  Rochester, NY 14607

  www.boaeditions.org

  A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (1938–1996)

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Editors’ Note

  Foreword: Lucille Clifton by Toni Morrison

  Early Uncollected Poems (1965–1969)

  BLACK WOMEN

  OLD HUNDRED

  THE OLD AVAILABLES HAVE

  CHAN’S DREAM

  from Dark Nursery Rhymes for a Dark Daughter

  5/23/67 R.I.P.

  ONLY TOO HIGH IS HIGH ENOUGH

  THE COMING OF X

  Conversation Overheard in a Graveyard

  SUNDAY DINNER

  MY FRIEND MARY STONE FROM OXFORD MISSISSIPPI

  SPRING THOUGHT FOR THELMA

  my mother teached me

  To Mama too late

  Dear Mama

  Dear

  Dear

  plain as a baby

  Everytime i talk about

  satchmo

  FOR PRISSLY

  the last Seminole is black

  a poem written for many moynihans

  the poet is thirty two

  QUOTATIONS FROM AUNT MARGARET BROWN

  daddy

  take somebody like me

  let them say

  good times (1969)

  in the inner city

  my mama moved among the days

  my daddy’s fingers move among the couplers

  lane is the pretty one

  miss rosie

  robert

  the 1st

  running across to the lot

  still

  good times

  if i stand in my window

  stops

  the discoveries of fire

  those boys that ran together

  pity this poor animal

  the white boy

  the meeting after the savior gone

  for deLawd

  ca’line’s prayer

  if he ask you was i laughing

  if something should happen

  generations

  love rejected

  tyrone (1)

  willie b (1)

  tyrone (2)

  willie b (2)

  tyrone (3)

  willie b (3)

  tyrone (4)

  willie b (4)

  buffalo war

  flowers

  pork chops

  now my first wife never did come out of her room

  the way it was

  admonitions

  good news about the earth (1972)

  about the earth after kent state

  being property once myself

  the way it was

  the lost baby poem

  later i’ll say

  apology

  lately

  the ’70s

  listen children

  driving through new england

  the news

  the bodies broken on

  song

  prayer

  heroes africa

  i am high on the man called crazy

  earth

  for the bird who flew against our window one morning and broke his natural neck

  God send easter

  so close

  wise: having the ability to perceive and adopt the best means for accomplishing an end.

  malcolm

  eldridge

  to bobby seale

  for her hiding place

  richard penniman

  daddy

  poem for my sisters

  the kind of man he is

  some jesus adam and eve

  cain

  moses

  solomon

  job

  daniel

  jonah

  john

  mary

  joseph

  the calling of the disciples

  the raising of lazarus

  palm sunday

  good friday

  easter sunday

  spring song

  Uncollected Poems (1973–1974)

  Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival

  All of Us Are All of Us

  an ordinary woman (1974)

  sisters in salem

  sisters

  leanna’s poem

  on the birth of bomani

  salt

  a storm poem

  god’s mood

  new bones

  harriet

  roots

  come home from the movies

  to ms. ann

  my boys

  last note to my girls

  a visit to gettysburg

  monticello

  to a dark moses

  Kali

  this morning

  i agree with the leaves the lesson of the falling leaves

  i am running into a new year

  the coming of Kali

  she insists on me

  she understands me

  she is dreaming

  her love poem

  calming Kali

  i am not done yet

  the poet

  turning

  my poem

  lucy one-eye

  if mama

  i was born in a hotel

  light

  cutting greens

  jackie robinson

  i went to the valley

  at last we killed the roaches

  in the evenings

  breaklight

  some dreams
hang in the air

  the carver

  let there be new flowering

  the thirty eighth year

  Uncollected Poems (ca. 1975)

  Anniversary 5/10/74

  November 1, 1975

  “We Do Not Know Very Much About Lucille’s Inner Life”

  two-headed woman (1980)

  homage to mine lucy and her girls

  i was born with twelve fingers

  homage to my hair

  homage to my hips

  what the mirror said

  there is a girl inside

  to merle

  august the 12th

  on the death of allen’s son

  speaking of loss

  to thelma who worried because i couldn’t cook

  poem on my fortieth birthday to my mother who died young

  februrary 13, 1980

  forgiving my father

  to the unborn and waiting children

  aunt agnes hatcher tells

  the once and future dead

  two-headed woman in this garden

  the making of poems

  new year

  sonora desert poem

  my friends

  wife

  i once knew a man

  angels

  conversation with my grandson, waiting to be conceived

  the mystery that surely is present

  the astrologer predicts at mary’s birth

  anna speaks of the childhood of mary her daughter

  mary’s dream

  how he is coming then

  holy night

  a song of mary

  island mary

  mary mary astonished by God

  for the blind

  for the mad

  for the lame

  for the mute

  God waits for the wandering world

  the light that came to lucille clifton

  the light that came to lucille clifton testament

  incandescence

  mother, i am mad

  perhaps

  explanations

  friends come

  to joan

  confession

  in populated air

  Next (1987)

  we are all next album

  winnie song

  there

  what spells raccoon to me

  this belief

  why some people be mad at me sometimes

  sorrow song

  I. at creation

  I. at gettysburg

  I. at nagasaki

  I. at jonestown

  atlantic is a sea of bones

  cruelty. don’t talk to me about cruelty

  the woman in the camp

  the lost women

  4 daughters

  grown daughter

  here is another bone to pick with you

  female

  if our grandchild be a girl

  this is the tale

  my dream about being white

  my dream about the cows

  my dream about time

  my dream about falling

  my dream about the second coming

  my dream about God

  my dream about the poet

  morning mirror

  or next the death of crazy horse

  crazy horse names his daughter

  crazy horse instructs the young men but in their grief they forget

  the message of crazy horse

  the death of thelma sayles

  lives

  the message of thelma sayles

  the death of joanne c.

  enter my mother

  leukemia as white rabbit

  incantation

  chemotherapy

  she won’t ever forgive me

  the one in the next bed is dying

  leukemia as dream/ritual

  the message of jo

  chorus: lucille

  the death of fred clifton

  “i’m going back to my true identity”

  my wife

  the message of fred clifton

  singing in white america 1 i come to read them poems

  2 the history

  3 the tour

  4 the hall

  5 the reading

  6 it is late

  shapeshifter poems 1 the legend is whispered

  2 who is there to protect her

  3 if the little girl lies

  4 the poem at the end of the world

  california lessons 1 geography

  2 history

  3 botany

  4 semantics

  5 metaphysics

  quilting (1991)

  [section titles are taken from the names of traditional quilt designs]

  quilting

  log cabin i am accused of tending to the past

  note to myself

  poem beginning in no and ending in yes

  february 11, 1990

  at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989

  slave cabin, sotterly plantation, maryland, 1989

  white lady

  memo

  reply

  whose side are you on?

  shooting star

  poem with rhyme in it

  eyes

  defending my tongue

  catalpa flower from the wisdom of sister brown

  the birth of language

  we are running

  what the grass knew

  nude photograph

  this is for the mice that live

  sleeping beauty

  a woman who loves

  man and wife

  poem in praise of menstruation

  peeping tom

  ways you are not like oedipus

  the killing of the trees

  questions and answers

  november 21, 1988

  the beginning of the end of the world

  the last day

  eight-pointed star wild blessings

  somewhere

  when i stand around among poets

  water sign woman

  photograph

  grandma, we are poets

  december 7, 1989

  to my friend, jerina

  lot’s wife 1988

  fat fat water rat

  poem to my uterus

  to my last period

  wishes for sons

  the mother’s story

  in which i consider the fortunate deaf

  4/25/89 late

  as he was dying

  night sound

  the spirit walks in

  after the reading

  moonchild

  tree of life oh where have you fallen to

  remembering the birth of lucifer

  whispered to lucifer

  eve’s version

  lucifer understanding at last

  the garden of delight

  adam thinking

  eve thinking

  the story thus far

  lucifer speaks in his own voice

  prayer blessing the boats

  The Book of Light (1992)

  LIGHT

  reflection climbing

  june 20

  daughters

  sam

  my lost father

  thel

  imagining bear

  c.c. rider

  11/10 again

  she lived

  for roddy

  them and us

  the women you are accustomed to

  song at midnight

  won’t you celebrate with me

  lightning bolt it was a dream

  each morning i pull myself

  here yet be dragons

  the yeti poet returns to his village to tell his story

  crabbing

  the earth is a living thing

  move

  samson predicts from gaza the philadelphia fire

  january 1991

  dear jesse helms,

  if i should

  further note to
clark

  begin here

  night vision

  fury

  cigarettes

  final note to clark

  note, passed to superman

  the rough weight of it

  splendor seeker of visions

  nothing about the moment

  atlas

  sarah’s promise

  naomi watches as ruth sleeps

  cain

  leda 1

  leda 2

  leda 3

  far memory

  brothers

  Uncollected Poems (1993)

  hometown 1993

  ones like us

  The Terrible Stories (1996)

  telling our stories

  1. A Dream of Foxes fox

  the coming of fox

  dear fox

  leaving fox

  one year later

  a dream of foxes

  2. From the Cadaver amazons

  lumpectomy eve

  consulting the book of changes: radiation

  1994

  scar

  hag riding

  down the tram

  rust

  from the cadaver

  3. A Term in Memphis shadows

  slaveships

  entering the south

  the mississippi river empties into the gulf

  old man river

  the son of medgar

  auction street

  memphis

  what comes after this

  blake

  4. In the Meantime evening and my dead once husband

  memory

  my sanctified grandmother

  lee

  album

  what did she know, when did she know it

  in the same week

  heaven

  lorena

  in the meantime

  5. From the Book of David dancer

  son of jesse

  david has slain his ten thousands

  to michal

  enemies

  beloved

  bathsheba

  the prophet

  oh absalom my son my son

  david, musing

  what manner of man

  Blessing the Boats (2000)

  new poems the times

  signs

  moonchild