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Coal
Of Coal , the poet and critic Hayden Carruth said, "For us these words indeed are jewels in the open light." Coal is one of the earliest collections of poems by a woman who, Adrienne Rich writes, "for the complexity of her vision, for her moral courage and the catalytic passion of her language, has already become, for many, an indispensable poet."
Marilyn Hacker captures the essence of Lorde and her poetry: "Black, lesbian, mother, urban woman: none of Lorde's selves has ever silenced the others; the counterpoint among them is often the material of her strongest poems."
Marilyn Hacker captures the essence of Lorde and her poetry: "Black, lesbian, mother, urban woman: none of Lorde's selves has ever silenced the others; the counterpoint among them is often the material of her strongest poems."
82 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
28 people are currently reading
1601 people want to read
About the author
Audre Lorde
112 books5,475 followersAudre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone."
Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.
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Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
August 1, 2022
Without expectation
there is no end
to the shocks of morning
or even a small summer. p11
This slim but exceptional volume of poetry has been affecting my own writing style for weeks. I love how Lorde handles a line, and her syntax is dreamy.
When I first started reading COAL, I couldn't connect. So I walked around my house, blindly, reading the poems out loud, bruising my shins. But once I felt her lines and sentences in my own mouth, the tension of her diction, all the choices she put into those poems, coming out from between my lips--I was hooked. I knew what I was reading was something, as I already said, exceptional.
COAL is a poetry collection you read if you want to feel. It's not a sit and relax book. Audre Lorde was a black gay woman and wrote these poems bravely from a place of need, of desire, and of complexity.
With all that I love about this collection, I did not care for the last two sections, grief poems. One of these was an epic, entitled "Martha," which is technically good, but I felt lost in it several times. Who knows--maybe that was Lorde's intent; it's a grief poem. There's also one exception: the last poem in the book, entitled, "To a Girl Who Knew What Side Her Bread Was Buttered On."
What form! I love this, poem-letter form. I'm reading a whole collection of them right now; but Lorde's is the most stunning example I've seen. Hers is a short poem describing the figure in the greeting, which functions in this case a bit like glossing in chapters of fiction. The Poem tells the story of the girl: looked after by a pile of "old bones" and pursued by a too-old man--which one of them will capture her thrall? Well...the title has already told us, if we pay attention!
Rating 4 stars
Finished July 2022
Recommended to fans of modern poetry, contemporary poetry, and literary poetry; readers seeking diverse perspectives, black poetic voices
there is no end
to the shocks of morning
or even a small summer. p11
This slim but exceptional volume of poetry has been affecting my own writing style for weeks. I love how Lorde handles a line, and her syntax is dreamy.
When I first started reading COAL, I couldn't connect. So I walked around my house, blindly, reading the poems out loud, bruising my shins. But once I felt her lines and sentences in my own mouth, the tension of her diction, all the choices she put into those poems, coming out from between my lips--I was hooked. I knew what I was reading was something, as I already said, exceptional.
COAL is a poetry collection you read if you want to feel. It's not a sit and relax book. Audre Lorde was a black gay woman and wrote these poems bravely from a place of need, of desire, and of complexity.
With all that I love about this collection, I did not care for the last two sections, grief poems. One of these was an epic, entitled "Martha," which is technically good, but I felt lost in it several times. Who knows--maybe that was Lorde's intent; it's a grief poem. There's also one exception: the last poem in the book, entitled, "To a Girl Who Knew What Side Her Bread Was Buttered On."
What form! I love this, poem-letter form. I'm reading a whole collection of them right now; but Lorde's is the most stunning example I've seen. Hers is a short poem describing the figure in the greeting, which functions in this case a bit like glossing in chapters of fiction. The Poem tells the story of the girl: looked after by a pile of "old bones" and pursued by a too-old man--which one of them will capture her thrall? Well...the title has already told us, if we pay attention!
Rating 4 stars
Finished July 2022
Recommended to fans of modern poetry, contemporary poetry, and literary poetry; readers seeking diverse perspectives, black poetic voices
November 2, 2023
“Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference” -Lady Gaga
I had to invoke Ms. Germanotta because I’m too stunned to speak. Couldn’t recommend this collection more.
Fav poems + quotes:
Story Books on a Kitchen Table:
“Where anger re-conceived me / piercing my eyes like arrows /pointed by her nightmare
of who I was not / becoming.”
Gemini:
“Our roots, once nourished by the cool lost water / cry out -Remind us!"-and the oyster / world cries out its pearls like tears.”
Bridge through My Window:
“Love, we are both shorelines”
When the Saints Come Marching in:
“I do not know the rituals / the exhaltations / nor what name of the god / the survivors will worship / I only know she will be terrible / and very busy / and very old.”
The Maiden:
“Once I was immortal beside an ocean”
Second Spring:
“We have no passions left to love the spring / who have suffered autumn as we did, alone”
“How shall we know another spring / For there will come no flower where was fruit before”
I had to invoke Ms. Germanotta because I’m too stunned to speak. Couldn’t recommend this collection more.
Fav poems + quotes:
Story Books on a Kitchen Table:
“Where anger re-conceived me / piercing my eyes like arrows /pointed by her nightmare
of who I was not / becoming.”
Gemini:
“Our roots, once nourished by the cool lost water / cry out -Remind us!"-and the oyster / world cries out its pearls like tears.”
Bridge through My Window:
“Love, we are both shorelines”
When the Saints Come Marching in:
“I do not know the rituals / the exhaltations / nor what name of the god / the survivors will worship / I only know she will be terrible / and very busy / and very old.”
The Maiden:
“Once I was immortal beside an ocean”
Second Spring:
“We have no passions left to love the spring / who have suffered autumn as we did, alone”
“How shall we know another spring / For there will come no flower where was fruit before”
June 29, 2023
This short collection of 41 poems, Coal, spans a range of visual and emotional memory—of life passed by, of relationships ending, of truths to learn of the world. One of Audre Lorde’s techniques is the stark contrastive metaphor which seems to repeated break expectation to highlight a defiant tension:
The iconic poem in the collection contains these contrastive punches, and also powerfully demonstrates the brevity, common themes, a 1st-person point-of-view, and female-mother(-daughter-lover) narrative voice emanating throughout this collection.
their fathers were dying
whose death will not free them
•
Meanwhile
the woman thing my mother taught me
bakes off its covering of snow
like a rising blackening sun.
•
following rain
why are you weeping?
I am come home.
The iconic poem in the collection contains these contrastive punches, and also powerfully demonstrates the brevity, common themes, a 1st-person point-of-view, and female-mother(-daughter-lover) narrative voice emanating throughout this collection.
A Child
Shall Lead
I have a child
whose feet are blind
on every road
but silence.
My boy has
lovely foolish lips
but cannot find
his way to sun
And I am grown
past knowledge.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2025
beautiful and sharp poetry, as always
Read
November 12, 2025beaming. breaking. then beaming again.
June 7, 2020
It's felt like a good time to revisit Audre Lorde, and this is my favorite of her books of poetry. The poem that stood out most to me today:
Future Promise
This home will not stand forever.
The windows are sturdy
but shuttered
like individual solutions
that match one at a time.
The roof leaks.
On persistent rainy days
I look up to see
the gables weeping
quietly.
The stairs are sound
beneath my children
but from time to time
a splinter leaves
imbedded in a childish foot.
I dream of stairways
sagging
into silence
well used and satisfied
with no more need
for changelessness.
Once
freed from constancy
this house
will not stand
forever.
------------------------------
And there you have it, my first 5-star rating of a book of poetry ever. I read this straight through and couldn't stop, except to read certain poems over again. And it took me by surprise because so many of the poems in this collection appeared before in other books of Lorde's, but even the ones I didn't think much of before completely resonated here, in the company of all the others. I commented that Lorde's two previous collections felt uneven to me, but this one...it's like one of those albums where every song is amazing, and there's an overall mood to it that ties them all together, and when you listen to it you feel like you're wrapped up in something bigger than you, and even listening to it again after a long absence, you still find yourself connected to it and to who you were back when you first heard it.
I don't know. But I've definitely found my poet, and I'm excited to find that in my giant book of every poem Lorde ever published I'm only about halfway through.
I'm not even going to bother listing out the poems I loved in this collection like I usually do, because I loved all of them in some way, but here's one that was new to me and that I've already reread several times over:
The Maiden
Once I was immortal beside an ocean
having the names of night
and the first men came
with sledges of fire
driving the sun.
I was brought forth in the moonpit of a virgin
condemned to light
to a dry world's endless mornings
sweeping the moon away
and wherever I fled
seeking a new road home
morning had harrowed the endless rivers
to nest in the dried out bed
of my mother sea.
Time drove the moon down to crescent
and they found me
mortal
beside a moon's crater
mouthing the ocean names of night.
Next up is Between Our Selves, but I almost want to just keep reading this one over and over again forever instead!
Future Promise
This home will not stand forever.
The windows are sturdy
but shuttered
like individual solutions
that match one at a time.
The roof leaks.
On persistent rainy days
I look up to see
the gables weeping
quietly.
The stairs are sound
beneath my children
but from time to time
a splinter leaves
imbedded in a childish foot.
I dream of stairways
sagging
into silence
well used and satisfied
with no more need
for changelessness.
Once
freed from constancy
this house
will not stand
forever.
------------------------------
And there you have it, my first 5-star rating of a book of poetry ever. I read this straight through and couldn't stop, except to read certain poems over again. And it took me by surprise because so many of the poems in this collection appeared before in other books of Lorde's, but even the ones I didn't think much of before completely resonated here, in the company of all the others. I commented that Lorde's two previous collections felt uneven to me, but this one...it's like one of those albums where every song is amazing, and there's an overall mood to it that ties them all together, and when you listen to it you feel like you're wrapped up in something bigger than you, and even listening to it again after a long absence, you still find yourself connected to it and to who you were back when you first heard it.
I don't know. But I've definitely found my poet, and I'm excited to find that in my giant book of every poem Lorde ever published I'm only about halfway through.
I'm not even going to bother listing out the poems I loved in this collection like I usually do, because I loved all of them in some way, but here's one that was new to me and that I've already reread several times over:
The Maiden
Once I was immortal beside an ocean
having the names of night
and the first men came
with sledges of fire
driving the sun.
I was brought forth in the moonpit of a virgin
condemned to light
to a dry world's endless mornings
sweeping the moon away
and wherever I fled
seeking a new road home
morning had harrowed the endless rivers
to nest in the dried out bed
of my mother sea.
Time drove the moon down to crescent
and they found me
mortal
beside a moon's crater
mouthing the ocean names of night.
Next up is Between Our Selves, but I almost want to just keep reading this one over and over again forever instead!
November 16, 2024
Lorde was a self-described “black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior poet” and she brings all of these aspects of her persona into this collection of poems as well as lover, daughter, oracle, and witch. Her work is important and impactful with poignant lines like this beauty: “time drove the moon down to a crescent.”
November 17, 2025
If I'm being completely honest, this is one of the greatest things I've read, certainly some of the greatest poetry. I will be reading more of Audre Lorde's work as soon as I can, because these were truly sensational.
My favourites: On a Night Of the Full Moon, Anniversary, Memorial II, Martha, Generation, Hard Love Rock
My favourites: On a Night Of the Full Moon, Anniversary, Memorial II, Martha, Generation, Hard Love Rock
May 26, 2025
Read and analysed the poems with Eva💌
June 16, 2024
Paperweight and Martha both made my jaw drop
February 11, 2021
My fav (aside from "Coal"):
"To a Girl Who Knew What Side Her Bread Was Buttered On"
He, through the eyes of the first marauder
saw her, his catch of bright thunder, heaping
tea and bread for her guardian dead
crunching the nut-dry words they said
and, thinking the bones were sleeping.
he broke through the muffled afternoon
calling an end to their ritual's tune
with lightning-like disorder:
'Leave these bones, Love! Come away
from their summer breads with the flavour of hay -
your guards can watch the shards of our catch
warming our bones on some winter's day!'
Like an ocean of straws the old bones rose up
Fearing his threat of a second death;
and he had little time to wonder
at the silence of bright thunder
as, with a smile of pity and stealth,
she buttered fresh scones for her guardian bones
and they trampled him into the earth.
It's my favorite because of the atmosphere of fantasy, the funny play with punctuation and line breaking, and the wonderfully twisted tone provoked by the final two lines. My love for the collection as a whole is inconsistent, but a couple individual pieces put it over the edge (see also: "The Maiden" [for the history, lore] / "Martha" [for the eulogizing tone] / "Second Spring" [for the craft of bringing nature and emotion together])
"To a Girl Who Knew What Side Her Bread Was Buttered On"
He, through the eyes of the first marauder
saw her, his catch of bright thunder, heaping
tea and bread for her guardian dead
crunching the nut-dry words they said
and, thinking the bones were sleeping.
he broke through the muffled afternoon
calling an end to their ritual's tune
with lightning-like disorder:
'Leave these bones, Love! Come away
from their summer breads with the flavour of hay -
your guards can watch the shards of our catch
warming our bones on some winter's day!'
Like an ocean of straws the old bones rose up
Fearing his threat of a second death;
and he had little time to wonder
at the silence of bright thunder
as, with a smile of pity and stealth,
she buttered fresh scones for her guardian bones
and they trampled him into the earth.
It's my favorite because of the atmosphere of fantasy, the funny play with punctuation and line breaking, and the wonderfully twisted tone provoked by the final two lines. My love for the collection as a whole is inconsistent, but a couple individual pieces put it over the edge (see also: "The Maiden" [for the history, lore] / "Martha" [for the eulogizing tone] / "Second Spring" [for the craft of bringing nature and emotion together])
May 26, 2025
read in its entirety with my friend ornella, we analyzed each one and compared meanings until we found a common one
sometimes it felt like audre lorde was talking to us personally, i love how lesbian heartbreak can take many forms, but essentially its all felt the same and it can unite three completely different women into one
I also cried in public reading it😍
I love it here
sometimes it felt like audre lorde was talking to us personally, i love how lesbian heartbreak can take many forms, but essentially its all felt the same and it can unite three completely different women into one
I also cried in public reading it😍
I love it here
April 17, 2024
New fave collection ♥️
What my child learns of the sea
of the summer thunders
of the riddles that hide in the curve of spring
she will learn in my twilights
and childlike
revise every autumn.
What my child learns of the sea
of the summer thunders
of the riddles that hide in the curve of spring
she will learn in my twilights
and childlike
revise every autumn.
December 17, 2025
Amazing as ever.
I generally prefer Lorde’s essays to her poetry (both are spectacular, but her essays are more accessible and thus more broadly powerful in the world I believe). Some of her poems I felt a little too metaphorical and obscure, couldn’t connect — but some were just so spectacular.
I generally prefer Lorde’s essays to her poetry (both are spectacular, but her essays are more accessible and thus more broadly powerful in the world I believe). Some of her poems I felt a little too metaphorical and obscure, couldn’t connect — but some were just so spectacular.
May 13, 2025
still don’t think i’m cultured enough to understand poetry but i had a good time
July 23, 2020
Distinctively cryptic, entirely captivating!
February 13, 2024
J'ai adoré "La Licorne Noire" et "Sister Outsider" mais là, je n'ai rien compris : je suis restée en dehors du livre pendant toute ma lecture et je serais bien incapable d'en identifier le sujet. "Charbon est une puissante prise de parole politique par la poésie, afin de repenser les différents rapports d’oppression dans les sociétés occidentales contemporaines", selon la quatrième de couverture (de l'édition française parue en 2023) ; franchement je ne l'ai pas ; la traduction peut-être ? Je suis déçue car j'adore Audre Lorde et la poésie.
August 22, 2025
I feel like this is a poem collection, and you have to read more than once to understand its depth fully. However, even the first time reading it, you can take a lot away from it. Definitely a recommendation!
October 19, 2025
Why did I wait so long to read her?
January 27, 2015
"Fairy books where white witches ruled over the empty kitchen table and never wept or offered gold nor any kind enchantment for the vanished mother of a black girl"
February 3, 2022
“How the young are tempted and betrayed
into slaughter or conformity
is a turn of the mirror
time’s question only.”
Timeless imagery. Urban and natural.
into slaughter or conformity
is a turn of the mirror
time’s question only.”
Timeless imagery. Urban and natural.
May 28, 2021
I was familiar with Audre Lorde as a poet but I'd never read any of her work. Until now. Coal is a fine read. There is good poetry throughout.
The collection was first published in 1976 and was Lorde's first collection published by a major publisher. There are five parts.
Section I features poems of a variety of topics, including the titular "Coal". Part II is mainly about childhood and children, but not entirely. Part III seems to be about the experience of being a partner, a lover and a mother. Part IV is one superb long poem "Martha". "Martha" is one of my favourite pieces of writing in the whole book. It is a poem about the survival and recovery of a friend of Lorde's after a car accident. Part V is a series of poems about loss, grief and remembrance. Typically I found this to be my favourite part of the collection:
"If you come as softly
as wind within the trees
you may hear what I hear
see what sorrow sees."
from Memorial I
One of the poems in Part V, "Anniversary", made me think of "Sometimes It Snows in April". A part of me even wonders if Lorde's poem was in Prince's mind when he wrote the song. But perhaps, as the Eighth Doctor once said, I am a "typical human. Always seeing patterns where there are none."
"But April came today.
though spring comes ever
even in the empty years
since you have slept
it was in April
that you chose to sever
young love and self
and I remembered
and I wept."
from Anniversary
Lorde writes neatly about the personal and the political. Here, perhaps, are poems that exemplify that saying "the personal is political".
This was an excellent introduction to Lorde's work. I have a book of her essays and her memoir to read but I'd like to read more of her poetry too.
The collection was first published in 1976 and was Lorde's first collection published by a major publisher. There are five parts.
Section I features poems of a variety of topics, including the titular "Coal". Part II is mainly about childhood and children, but not entirely. Part III seems to be about the experience of being a partner, a lover and a mother. Part IV is one superb long poem "Martha". "Martha" is one of my favourite pieces of writing in the whole book. It is a poem about the survival and recovery of a friend of Lorde's after a car accident. Part V is a series of poems about loss, grief and remembrance. Typically I found this to be my favourite part of the collection:
"If you come as softly
as wind within the trees
you may hear what I hear
see what sorrow sees."
from Memorial I
One of the poems in Part V, "Anniversary", made me think of "Sometimes It Snows in April". A part of me even wonders if Lorde's poem was in Prince's mind when he wrote the song. But perhaps, as the Eighth Doctor once said, I am a "typical human. Always seeing patterns where there are none."
"But April came today.
though spring comes ever
even in the empty years
since you have slept
it was in April
that you chose to sever
young love and self
and I remembered
and I wept."
from Anniversary
Lorde writes neatly about the personal and the political. Here, perhaps, are poems that exemplify that saying "the personal is political".
This was an excellent introduction to Lorde's work. I have a book of her essays and her memoir to read but I'd like to read more of her poetry too.
March 11, 2021
“I
Is the total black, being spoken
From the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open.
How a diamond comes into a knot of flame
How a sound comes into a word, coloured
By who pays what for speaking.
Some words are open
Like a diamond on glass windows
Singing out within the crash of passing sun
Then there are words like stapled wagers
In a perforated book—buy and sign and tear apart—
And come whatever wills all chances
The stub remains
An ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
Breeding like adders. Others know sun
Seeking like gypsies over my tongue
To explode through my lips
Like young sparrows bursting from shell.
Some words
Bedevil me.
Love is a word another kind of open—
As a diamond comes into a knot of flame
I am Black because I come from the earth's inside
Take my word for jewel in your open light.”
Is the total black, being spoken
From the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open.
How a diamond comes into a knot of flame
How a sound comes into a word, coloured
By who pays what for speaking.
Some words are open
Like a diamond on glass windows
Singing out within the crash of passing sun
Then there are words like stapled wagers
In a perforated book—buy and sign and tear apart—
And come whatever wills all chances
The stub remains
An ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
Breeding like adders. Others know sun
Seeking like gypsies over my tongue
To explode through my lips
Like young sparrows bursting from shell.
Some words
Bedevil me.
Love is a word another kind of open—
As a diamond comes into a knot of flame
I am Black because I come from the earth's inside
Take my word for jewel in your open light.”
July 21, 2021
Another great collection, though most of the poems are reprints as this was Lorde’s first collection from a major publisher! I struggle with the meaning behind some, but what I do glean, is beautiful, and haunting, and human. Favorite poem this read through:
Memorial I by Audre Lorde from Coal (1976)
If you come as softly
As wind within the trees
You may hear what I hear
See what sorrow sees.
If you come as lightly
As the threading dew
I shall take you gladly
Nor ask more of you.
You may sit beside me
Silent as a breath
And only those who stay dead
Shall remember death.
If you come I will be silent
Nor speak harsh words to you.
I will not ask you why, now,
nor how, nor what you knew.
But we shall sit here softly
Beneath two different years
And the rich earth between us
Shall drink our tears.
Memorial I by Audre Lorde from Coal (1976)
If you come as softly
As wind within the trees
You may hear what I hear
See what sorrow sees.
If you come as lightly
As the threading dew
I shall take you gladly
Nor ask more of you.
You may sit beside me
Silent as a breath
And only those who stay dead
Shall remember death.
If you come I will be silent
Nor speak harsh words to you.
I will not ask you why, now,
nor how, nor what you knew.
But we shall sit here softly
Beneath two different years
And the rich earth between us
Shall drink our tears.
December 22, 2021
[3.25/5]
I have to admit, poetry is my weak spot. I find it very hard to stay engaged and paint my own picture of what an author is doing in their work. This makes my rating on poetry collections biased to be lower. However, I really did find that Lorde managed to cover so much ground very beautifully here.
Poem for a Poet is a great heartbreak and nostalgia poem, themes which in our current holiday lockdown predicament that anyone can feel. Memorial II is probably my favorite piece and incredible at portraying how grief transforms you even when you are distant from the original event. How a terrible thing can freeze how you were at that time. I found Paperweight and The Woman Thing also to be quote evocative.
All in all, a short and worthwhile primer for a famous writer I had not yet explored.
I have to admit, poetry is my weak spot. I find it very hard to stay engaged and paint my own picture of what an author is doing in their work. This makes my rating on poetry collections biased to be lower. However, I really did find that Lorde managed to cover so much ground very beautifully here.
Poem for a Poet is a great heartbreak and nostalgia poem, themes which in our current holiday lockdown predicament that anyone can feel. Memorial II is probably my favorite piece and incredible at portraying how grief transforms you even when you are distant from the original event. How a terrible thing can freeze how you were at that time. I found Paperweight and The Woman Thing also to be quote evocative.
All in all, a short and worthwhile primer for a famous writer I had not yet explored.
March 14, 2019
COAL
I is the total black
being spoken
from the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open
how a diamond comes
into a knot of flame
how sound comes into a word
colored
by who pays what for speaking.
Some words are open
diamonds on a glass window
singing out within the crash
of passing sun
other words are stapled wagers
in a perforated book
buy and sign and tear apart
and come whatever wills all chances
the stub remains
an ill-pulled tooth
with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
breeding like adders
others
know sun
seeking like gypsies
over my tongue
to explode through my lips
like young sparrows
bursting from shell.
Some words
bedevil me.
Love is a word, another kind of open.
As the diamond comes
into a knot of flame
I am Black
because I come from the earth's inside
take my word for jewel
in the open light.
***
I is the total black
being spoken
from the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open
how a diamond comes
into a knot of flame
how sound comes into a word
colored
by who pays what for speaking.
Some words are open
diamonds on a glass window
singing out within the crash
of passing sun
other words are stapled wagers
in a perforated book
buy and sign and tear apart
and come whatever wills all chances
the stub remains
an ill-pulled tooth
with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
breeding like adders
others
know sun
seeking like gypsies
over my tongue
to explode through my lips
like young sparrows
bursting from shell.
Some words
bedevil me.
Love is a word, another kind of open.
As the diamond comes
into a knot of flame
I am Black
because I come from the earth's inside
take my word for jewel
in the open light.
***
September 19, 2017
UGH. these poems live in that complicated betweenness of healing and pain, one unable to exist without the other. "Pirouette" is a masterpiece, "Gemini" and "Conversations in Crisis" were also beautiful. the last one seems most to me like the heart of how I feel about this book of poems. an expectation for what a conversation CAN be "a clear meeting / of self upon self" - and the repeated failure to reach that "hearth / but without fire" for reasons that, while changeable, seem incredibly refusing to shift....
April 28, 2023
When the Saints Come Marching in
Plentiful sacrifice and believers in redemption
are all that is needed
so any day now
I expect some new religion
to rise up like tear gas
from the streets of New York
erupting like the rank pavement smell
released by the garbage-trucks’
baptismal drizzle.
The high priests have been ready and waiting
with their incense pans full of fire.
I do not know the rituals
the exhaltations
nor what name of the god
the survivors will worship
I only know she will be terrible
and very busy
and very old.
Plentiful sacrifice and believers in redemption
are all that is needed
so any day now
I expect some new religion
to rise up like tear gas
from the streets of New York
erupting like the rank pavement smell
released by the garbage-trucks’
baptismal drizzle.
The high priests have been ready and waiting
with their incense pans full of fire.
I do not know the rituals
the exhaltations
nor what name of the god
the survivors will worship
I only know she will be terrible
and very busy
and very old.
August 27, 2021
Fantasy and Conversation
Speckled frogs leap from my mouth
to drown in the coffee
between our wisdoms
and decision.
I could smile
and turn these frogs to pearls
speak of love, our making
our giving.
And if the spell works
shall I break down
or build what is broken
into a new house
shook with confusion
Shall I strike
before our magic
turns colour?
This one is pretty awesomely different from the other books by Audre Lorde. You will fall easily into it.
This one is pretty awesomely different from the other books by Audre Lorde. You will fall easily into it.
September 30, 2025
A slow start and mostly a smattering of fantastic, brilliant lines among some more strange word choices and broken-up rhythms which I’m normally not a fan of .. but it picked up toward the middle-end, and so I can say my absolute faves are “When the saints come marching in” which was great all the way through, and “Martha”, which was great almost always.
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