(no subject)

[megwrites]

I am immensely sad to learn that Lucille Clifton has passed away at age 78.

As a woman of size who was once a girl of size? Hearing her poems in praise of female bodies without the rhetoric of daintiness and slimmness and slightness. Such as "Homage to My Hips" and "Poem in praise of menstruation" were a comfort to me.

Comments

[scififanatic.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard this. :(

I wrote papers in grad school about her poetry collection Blessing the Boats. Her poems are a gift.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

Truly, they were. And I'm sad that her death has not come with the fanfare given to Salinger's. Not to begrudge Salinger his props, but I really hated Catcher in the Rye.

Clifton? I have yet to find a poem of her that I DIDN'T love completely. She was gifted and thoughtful and powerful and endowed with a voice that always thundered through my head and heart when I read her works.

We have lost a genius and a superb poet. It's a sad day for humanity.