Last week was a week when I was in need of a poem to bolster my faith in my own self. In the midst of a very depressing day, for some reason I grabbed Lucille Clifton's poems, The Book of Light. This is the only book of Clifton I own, purchased and autographed when she visited Sarah Lawrence College in 1995. The only thing I remember of the reading was when she said Marvin Gaye was sexy for black people like Elvis was sexy for white people. I did not agree with that, as I find Marvin WAY sexier than Elvis, probably because Elvis was fat and sweaty in my time. Marvin was just sweaty. The first song I ever heard of Elvis was "Suspicious Minds" on an easy-listening radio station (not sexy). The first song I ever heard of Marvin Gaye was "Sexual Healing" on MTV (much sexier).
I saw Lucille Clifton again at the Dodge Poetry Festival around that same time walking around with a group of fans surrounding her.
In any case, I haven't checked-in with Clifton for quite a while. But I'm currently searching for a job and, for the first time last week, I came upon a very negative and disparaging situation. These things happen; but it made me feel pretty bad at the time. When I grabbed my Clifton book, I found it dog-eared at the poem "song at midnight." Here is the excerpt that I loved and think is relatable ….even if you are a man of any ethnicity:
won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i have no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
Read a retrospective of Lucille Clifton from The New Yorker.
