Lucille Clifton, Poet Extraordinaire

Hello and welcome to Poet Hound! Today we are talking about Lucille Clifton. She has recently won the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement. She is a living example of all that is excellent in poetry. Her works depict human nature in all its forms. Even her shortest poems cause vibrations, as though a giant were walking the countryside and everyone could feel the tremors. She is well respected and admired by all who come across her poems. PoetryFoundation.org has a collection of her poems for you to look at, but I will also type in one of my own favorites here:

here yet be dragons

so many languages have fallen
off of the edge of the world
into the dragon's mouth. some

where there be monsters whose teeth
are sharp and sparkle with lost
.....who

among us can speak with so fragile
tongue and remain proud?

Lucille Clifton

Isn't she wonderful? She was born in Depew, New York, the first in her family to finish high school and go to college. Lucille is a powerful writer and I highly recommend any of her books. I will admit that it can be difficult to find her in book-stores in the Poetry section so you may want to try your local library. She is fabulous! That's all for now, thanks for your interest in poetry.