what did i see to be except myself?

Lucille Clifton (June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010) 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.

Quotes

• Other than “the unanswerable question”… It’s the heart speaking, maybe that, maybe the human heart speaking.
  • On what poetry means to her in “LUCILLE CLIFTON: INTERVIEW” in Mosaic Magazine (January 2007)

• … A lot of women have borne a lot of things; a lot of people have borne a lot of things. There’s a certain kind of human that I want to be. There is not shame in my life. There is certainly misfortune, but I’m not the only one. I do know that. And sometimes, one of the things poetry can do is say to an audience: you are not alone. It can also speak for those who have not yet found their voice to speak. That’s part of the human condition. And if we’re going to talk about humans, why are we just going to talk about the pretty ones.
  • On what poetry can communicate to the voiceless in “LUCILLE CLIFTON: INTERVIEW” in Mosaic Magazine (January 2007)

• … I am a grown-up, sensual woman, even at this age and size. People would think you wouldn't be. I'm open to the whole of human experience.
  • On writing about female sexuality in “Between Starshine & Clay:An Interview with Lucille Clifton” in AWP (February 2011)

• One thing poetry teaches us, if anything, is that everything is connected…There is so much history that we have not validated.
  • On her worldly view of poetry in “Poet Lucille Clifton: 'Everything Is Connected'” in NPR (2010 Feb 28)

External links