Lucille Clifton died today.

[Lyric]

I am a creative writing major, studying to be a poet and a poetry professor someday. Lucille Clifton's poetry has been one of the foundations of my literary "world." I can't even imagine a world without her in it. I've been crying off and on since I found out that we lost her today. She has inspired me in a million ways over the years, and I feel shaken to my core. I suspect that my classmates will be in mourning for weeks over this.

In honor of her extraordinary gift and spirit--my favorite of her poems:

Sisters

me and you be sisters.
we be the same.

me and you
coming from the same place.

me and you
be greasing our legs
touching up our edges.

me and you
be scared of rats
be stepping on roaches.

me and you
come running high down purdy street one time
and mama laugh and shake her head at
me and you.

me and you
got babies
got thirty-five
got black
let our hair go back
be loving ourselves
be loving ourselves
be sisters.

only where you sing,
I poet.

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:cry: :cry: :cry:

Edit: My chapter of Sigma Tau Delta just sent out an alert--we're doing a memorial reading of all her poetry (and some of the poetry of her contemporary AA feminist poets) sometime in the next two days, assuming it doesn't snow on us. If anyone's interested in listening to the reading, we can probably upload a podcast. I dunno how many poetry enthusiasts there are here, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

[Fire1]

1. I'm so sorry for your loss. She obviously meant a great deal

to you and I'm sure you'll carry on her legacy. Peace.