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This week: Edited by: Crys-not really here  
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| Hi! My name is Crys-not really here and I'm happy to be your guest editor for the Poetry Newsletter. This week, we remember beloved poet Lucille Clifton, who died February 13, 2010. |
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Remembering Lucille Clifton
When I was an English major in college, Lucille Clifton was always one of my favorite modern poets to read. I remember reading “Homage to My Hips” and “Wishes for Sons” at open mic nights several times. Both were theme songs of sorts for the young female poets at my school.
Homage to My hips
by Lucille Clifton
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!
Clifton’s work was prolific, sparse, and strong. Many of her poems focused on being an African-American woman, but her voice and subjects were universal. It was Lucille Clifton who taught me that there is no such thing as a taboo subject and that capitalization and punctuation can sometimes be optional. Her poetry speaks to me in ways that many poetry doesn’t— it simultaneously grounds me in reality and allows me to think freely.
In 1988, Clifton became the first poet to have two books chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She also won the National Book Award Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000, an Emmy Award, a Lannan Literary Award, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shelley Memorial Award, the YM-YWHA Poetry Center Discovery Award, and the 2007 Ruth Lilly Prize.
Lucille Clifton died on February 13, 2010 at the age 73, after a long battle with cancer. Clifton was known and loved by the poetry world, even by those of us who have never met here, but merely read and loved her work. Here is another poem by Clifton, a poem that reminds us to celebrate the “good times.”
good times
by Lucille Clifton
my daddy has paid the rent
and the insurance man is gone
and the lights is back on
and my uncle brud has hit
for one dollar straight
and they is good times
good times
good times
my mama has made bread
and grampaw has come
and everybody is drunk
and dancing in the kitchen
and singing in the kitchen
of these is good times
good times
good times
oh children think about the
good times |
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Thanks to everyone who commented on my last poetry newsletter back in December! Here are some of the highlights.
Glad I'm not alone in this. Some classic poetry can be so difficult to understand at first glance.
A thinker never sleeps 
I like the point made that a poem is rather hard to follow when you have to pick up a dictionary in order to understand all the words.
Good Newsletter.
monty31802
Hey, Crys. Your first line, "Have you ever read a poem that made your head hurt?" told me I should read this one. None of my teachers made reading or writing poetry fun for me when I was in school, and the only poetry I 'remember' enjoying was Poe, especially "Raven". It's great that poets are lightening up. Maybe I'll give it another chance. Well done!
esprit
Interesting newsletter, Crys, but I found it surprising that 'difficult' equated 'unaccessible' and that poetry that didn't reveal its core immediately could be described as using confusing, mind-bending and often snooty language. Sure, some teens would find the poems you highlighted as rewarding, but so, too, would many others find pleasure in spending time getting to know a poem. A hundred years old, or more, doesn't matter: the written word is as new to you as the day you first read it. As a teen, my first experience with poetry was Chaucer, and what a fantastic romp that was! Don't be too quick to discount those gems of literature that take their time to reveal their treasure. A challenge can result in a different emotional reward to the reader--and in poetry, like much of life, diversity is key 
Acme
Excellent information. I look forward to checking out these authors.
If you are not familiar with her work, I strongly suggest you take a look at Helen Frost, and particularly her amazing Keesha's House. It is a wonderful poem-story about the troubled youth that Helen Frost has worked with for 25 years. I found it impossible to put down, which is extremely rare for poetry.
Ben Langhinrichs 
I smiled at your statement about certain poems making your head hurt. Been there-done that. I imagine that there is a great diversity amongst poets as to which poems or poets make their heads hurt. Poetry has become very much a "to each, his own" type of writing with few rules. I think we have lost along the way the vital sense of the poetic - the flow, the harmony. Do I dare say, the rhyme? Some, by no means all, free verse makes my head hurt. Thanks for the introduction to poets I might not have heard of otherwise.
Karen
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Poetry: March 24, 2010 Issue [#3570]
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