I have just heard about the death of poet Lucille Clifton and I still can’t wrap by head around the news. Even as I write this sentence, the opening paragraph of a story by James Baldwin (whom Lucille knew well) comes to me: I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my […]
Tag Archives: Lucille Clifton
Aspiring to Be a Dwarf
Continuing the Lord of the Rings discussion, here’s an interesting insight passed on to me by my friend Rachel Kranz about my last entry. I was interpreting my adolescent fondness for Gimli the dwarf as an indication that I felt myself a dwarf, hunkered down and plodding. Rachel says that she was stunned by this self-description […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, Flies, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jean Paul Sartre, Lord of the Rings Comments closed
“Even the Best” Whites Don’t Get Race
In yesterday’s post I mentioned that a noted poet once mentioned me in a poem critical of whites. The poet is Lucille Clifton, formerly a colleague at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, now retired. The poem appeared in her book quilting. I’ll quote the poem and then give the backstory: note to my self it’s […]
What Personal Reading Histories Tell Us
I can’t recommend enough the value of writing your reading history. It will reveal to you sides of yourself you didn’t know you had.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alice Walker, Bernard Waber, Bluest Eye, Blume, Book of Light, Cat in the Hat, Clifton, Color Purple, Dr. Seuss, Freckle Juice, Go Ask Alice, I Know Why the Caged Burn Sings, Ira Sleeps Over, Judy Blume, Maya Angelou, Missing Piece, Norman Holland, reading histories, Shel Silverstein, Toni Morrison Comments closed
