Sunday
I share today Lucille Clifton’s response to the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. For those who find the miracle hard to believe, Clifton tells her own resurrection story. “whoever say dust must be dust,” she writes, “don’t see the trees/ smell rain/ remember Africa.”
The poem appears in the “come jesus” section of good news about the earth. The poems in this 1972 collection tap into the energy of the Black militancy, the anti-war movement, and the environmental awakening, although I think the “come jesus” poems arise out of Clifton’s Baptist upbringing. A poet of celebration, Clifton preaches an uplifting message to the descendants of slaves. When she says, “even the dead shall rise,” she is thinking of the resilience of African Americans, who keep coming in spite of the forces that attempt to keep them down.
the raising of lazarus
By Lucille Clifton
the dead shall rise again
whoever say
dust must be dust
don’t see the trees
smell rain
remember Africa
everything that goes
can come
stand up
even the dead shall rise
