easter sunday, 125
eldridge, 101
11/10 again, 421
end of meditation, 682
enemies, 532
entering the city with bliss-bestowing hands, 681
entering the south, 504
enter my mother, 298
evening and my dead once husband, 515
Everytime i talk about, 22
eve’s version, 396
eve thinking, 400
explanations, 247
eyes, 341
faith, 660
far memory, 462
fat fat water rat, 379
february 11, 1990, 330
februrary 13, 1980, 207
female, 276
final note to clark, 448
1st, the, 41
5/23/67 R.I.P., 9
flowers, 67
for deLawd, 52
forgiving my father, 208
for her hiding place, 103
for maude, 667
FOR PRISSLY, 24
for roddy, 423
for the bird who flew against our window one morning and broke his natural neck, 96
for the blind, 234
for the lame, 236
for the mad, 235
for the mute, 237
4 daughters, 273
4/25/89 late, 385
fox, 481
friday 9/14/01, 604
friends come, 248
from the cadaver, 498
from the wisdom of sister brown, 347
further note to clark, 443
fury, 446
garden of delight, the, 398
generations, 56
gift, the, 569
god, 622
God Bless America, 726
God send easter, 97
god’s mood, 141
godspeak, 702
godspeak: kingdom come, 711
godspeak: out of paradise, 690
God waits for the wandering world, 238
good friday, 124
good times, 44
grandma, we are poets, 374
grief, 562
grown daughter, 274
hag riding, 495
haiku, 724
hands, 594
harriet, 143
heaven, 522
herding the ox, 676
here is another bone to pick with you, 275
here rests, 589
here yet be dragons, 433
her love poem, 163
highway 89 toward tahoe, 668
holy night, 230
homage to my hair, 197
homage to my hips, 198
hometown 1993, 473
horse prayer, 643
how he is coming then, 229
i am accused of tending to the past, 327
i am high on the man called crazy, 94
i am not done yet, 165
i am running into a new year, 158
if he ask you was i laughing, 54
if i should, 442
if i stand in my window, 45
if mama, 170
if our grandchild be a girl, 277
if something should happen, 55
imagining bear, 419
“i’m going back to my true identity”, 308
in amira’s room, 666
incandescence, 244
incantation, 300
“in 1844 explorers John Fremont and Kit Carson discovered Lake Tahoe”, 663
in populated air, 251
in salem, 135
in the evenings, 177
in the geometry, 620
in the inner city, 35
in the meantime, 524
In the middle of the Eye, 727
in the mirror, 585
in the same week, 521
in the saying of, 615
in this garden, 215
in which i consider the fortunate deaf, 384
i once knew a man, 222
island mary, 232
it was a dream, 431
i was born in a hotel, 171
i was born with twelve fingers, 196
i went to the valley, 175
in white america, 313
jackie robinson, 174
january 1991, 440
jasper texas 1998, 552
job, 115
john, 118
jonah, 117
joseph, 120
june 20, 414
Kali, 152
killing of the trees, the 360
kind of man he is, the, 107
lane is the pretty one, 38
last day, the, 365
last note to my girls, 148
last Seminole is black, the, 25
last words, 572
lately, 83
later i’ ll say, 81
lazarus (first day), 558
lazarus (second day), 559
lazarus (third day), 560
leanna’s poem, 137
leaving fox, 484
leda 1, 459
leda 2, 460
leda 3, 461
lee, 518
lesson of the falling leaves, the, 157
let them say, 31
let there be new flowering, 181
leukemia as dream/ritual, 304
leukemia as white rabbit, 299
libation, 550
light, 172
LIGHT, 409
listen children, 85
lives, 295
lorena, 523
lost baby poem, the, 80
lost women, the, 272
lot’s wife 1988, 378
love rejected, 57
lucifer morning-star, 708
lucifer morning-star to man-kind after the fall: in like kind, 691
lucifer speaks in his own voice, 402
lucifer understanding at last, 397
lucy and her girls, 195
lucy one-eye, 169
lumpectomy eve, 490
lu 1942, 652
making of poems, the, 216
malcolm, 100
man and wife, 356
man-kind: digging a trench to hell, 710
man-kind: in image of, 692
man-kind: over the jordan, into the promised land, 707
“marley was dead to begin with”, 639
mary, 119
mary mary astonished by God, 233
mary’s dream, 228
mataoka, 647
meditation on ten oxherding pictures, a, 671
meeting after the savior gone, the, 51
memo, 336
memory, 516
memphis, 509
mercy, 588
message from The Ones: (received in the late 70s), the, 609
message of crazy horse, the, 293
message of fred clifton, the, 310
message of jo, the, 305
message of thelma sayles, the, 296
mirror, 664
mississippi river empties into the gulf, the, 505
miss rosie, 39
monday sundown 9/17/01, 607
monticello, 150
moonchild, 390, 547
morning mirror, 286
moses, 113
mother, i am mad, 245
mother’s story, the, 383
mother-tongue: after the child’s death, 696
mother-tongue: after the flood, 697
mother-tongue: babylon, 700
mother-tongue: in a dream before she died, 704
mother-tongue: the land of nod, 694
mother-tongue: to man-kind, 701
mother-tongue: to the child just born, 695
mother-tongue: we are dying, 703
move, 437
mulberry fields, 582
my daddy’s fingers move among the couplers, 37
my boys, 147
my dream about being white, 279
my dream about falling, 282
my dream about God, 284
my dream about the cows, 280
my dream about the poet, 285
&nbs
p; my dream about the second coming, 283
my dream about time, 281
my father hasn’t come back, 658
MY FRIEND MARY STONE FROM OXFORD MISSISSIPPI, 14
my friends, 220
my grandfather’s lullaby, 650
my lost father, 417
my mama moved among the days, 36
my mother teached me, 16
my poem, 168
my sanctified grandmother, 517
my wife, 309
naomi watches as ruth sleeps, 457
new bones, 142
new orleans, 722
news, the, 87
new year, 217
night sound, 387
night vision, 445
1994, 493
nineveh: waiting, 699
note, 683
note, passed to superman, 449
note to myself, 328
nothing about the moment, 454
November 1, 1975, 188
november 21, 1988, 363
now my first wife never did come out of her room, 69
nude photograph, 351
oh absalom my son my son, 537
oh antic God, 573
oh where have you fallen to, 393
OLD AVAILABLES HAVE, THE, 5
OLD HUNDRED, 4
old man river, 506
ones like us, 474
one year later, 485
ONLY TOO HIGH IS HIGH ENOUGH, 10
on the birth of bomani, 138
on the death of allen’s son, 203
out of body, 570
ox and the man both gone out of sight, the, 679
ox forgotten leaving the man alone, the, 678
palm sunday, 123
peeping tom, 358
perhaps, 246
Phantom, the, 591
Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival, 129
photograph, 373
photograph: a lynching, the, 551
pity this poor animal, 49
plain as a baby, 21
poem beginning in no and ending in yes, 329
poem for my sisters, 106
poem in praise of menstruation, 357
poem on my fortieth birthday to my mother who died young, 206
poem to my uterus, 380
poem with rhyme in it, 340
poem written for many moynihans, a, 26
poet, the, 166
poet is thirty two, the, 27
pork chops, 68
Powell, 592
praise song, 555
prayer, 90
prodigal, 706
prophet, the, 536
questions and answers, 362
quilting, 323
QUOTATIONS FROM AUNT MARGARET BROWN, 28
raccoon prayer, 644
rainbow bears witness, the, 698
raising of lazarus, the, 122
remembering the birth of lucifer, 394
reply, 337
report from the angel of eden, 564
returning to the origin back to the source, 680
richard penniman, 104
river between us, the, 583
robert, 40
roots, 144
running across to the lot, 42
rust, 497
salt, 139
sam, 416
samson predicts from gaza the philadelphia fire, 439
sarah’s promise, 456
satchmo, 23
saturday 9/15/01, 605
scar, 494
searching for the ox, 672
seeing the ox, 674
seeing the traces, 673
seeker of visions, 453
september song: a poem in 7 days, 599
’70s, the, 84
shadows, 501
shapeshifter poems, 316
she insists on me, 160
she is dreaming, 162
she leans out from the mirror, 720
she lived, 422
she understands me, 161
she won’t ever forgive me, 302
shooting star, 339
signs, 546
slave cabin, sotterly plantation, maryland, 1989, 333
sisters, 136
6/27/06, 665
6/27/06 seventy, 715
slaveships, 503
sleeping beauty, 353
so close, 98
sodom and gomorrah, 705
solomon, 114
some dreams hang in the air, 179
some of you have been blessed, 618
some points along some of the meridians, 716
somewhere, 370
song, 89
song at midnight, 426
song of mary, a, 231
sonku, 576
son of jesse, 529
sonora desert poem, 218
sorrows, 653
sorrow song, 263
speaking of loss, 204
spring song, 126
SPRING THOUGHT FOR THELMA, 15
still, 43
stop, 597
stops, 46
storm poem, a, 140
story, a, 587
story thus far, the, 401
study the masters, 557
SUNDAY DINNER, 13
sunday morning 9/16/01, 606
surely i am able to write poems, 581
take somebody like me, 30
tale shepherds tell the sheep, the, 596
telling our stories, 477
testament, 243
the air, 630
the angels have no wings, 623
the bodies broken on, 88
thel, 418
the light that came to lucille clifton, 239
them and us, 424
the mystery that surely is present, 225
the once and future dead, 212
the one in the next bed is dying, 303
the patience, 631
there, 259
there is a girl inside, 200
there is a star, 633
the rough weight of it, 450
the son of medgar, 507
the spirit walks in, 388
the thirty eighth year, 182
the universe requires the worlds, 627
the way it was, 70
this belief, 261
this is for the mice that live, 352
this is the tale, 278
this is what i know, 657
this morning, 153
those boys that ran together, 48
thursday 9/13/01, 603
times, the, 545
Titled, 721
to a dark moses, 151
to bobby seale, 102
to joan, 249
To Mama too late, 17
to merle, 201
to michal, 531
to ms. ann, 146
to my friend, jerina, 377
to my last period, 381
to thelma who worried because i couldn’t cook, 205
to the unborn and waiting children, 209
tuesday 9/11/01, 601
turning, 167
tyrone (1), 58
tyrone (2), 60
tyrone (3), 62
tyrone (4), 64
uncle ben, 641
untitled, 719
visit to gettysburg, a, 149
walking the blind dog, 593
water sign woman, 372
way it was, the, 79
ways you are not like oedipus, 359
we, 621
we are here, 616
we are ones, 614
we are running, 349
wednesday 9/12/01, 602
“We Do Not Know Very Much About Lucille’s Inner Life”, 189
what spells raccoon to me, 260
what comes after this, 511
what did she know, when did she know it, 520
what has been made, 632
what haunts him, 649
what i think when i ride the train, 554
what manner of man, 539
what the grass knew, 350
what the mirror sai
d, 199
when i stand around among poets, 371
whether in spirit, 629
whispered to lucifer, 395
white boy, the, 50
white lady, 334
whose side are you on?, 338
why should we wander bone yards, 617
why some people be mad at me sometimes, 262
wife, 221
wild blessings, 369
willie b (1), 59
willie b (2), 61
willie b (3), 63
willie b (4), 65
wind on the st. marys river, 595
winnie song, 258
wise: having the ability to perceive and adopt the best means for accomplishing an end., 99
wishes for sons, 382
witko, 648
woman in the camp, the, 270
women you are accustomed to, the, 425
won’t you celebrate with me, 427
yeti poet returns to his village to tell his story, the, 434
you, 613
you are not, 626
you come to teach, 619
“you have been my tried and trusted friend”, 651
you have placed yourselves, 628
your mother sends you this, 611
you who feel yourself, 624
you wish to speak of, 625
About the Co-Editors
Kevin Young is the author of seven books of poetry, including Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels (Knopf, 2011) and Jelly Roll (Knopf, 2003), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Paterson Poetry Prize. His first book, Most Way Home (William Morrow, 1995), was selected by Lucille Clifton for the National Poetry Series and went on to win the Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares.
He is the editor of seven other collections, including The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing, Best American Poetry 2011, The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food & Drink, and Selected Poems: John Berryman for the Library of America. Young’s book The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness won the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and appeared March 2012.
Young is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English and Curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University in Atlanta, where Clifton’s papers are housed.
Michael S. Glaser is a Professor Emeritus at St. Mary’s College of Maryland where he served as both a professor and an administrator for nearly forty years. He is a recipient of the Homer Dodge Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching; the Columbia Merit Award from the Poetry Committee of the Greater Washington, D.C. area for his service to poetry; and the Andrew White Medal for his dedication to the intellectual and scholarly life, and for his commitment to sustaining the poetic tradition in the State of Maryland. Glaser served as a Maryland State Arts Council poet-in-the-schools for over twenty years and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Maryland Humanities Council. He served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2004 through 2009.
His early works include A Lover’s Eye (The Bunny & Crocodile Press, 1989), and In the Men’s Room and Other Poems, which was the winner of the 1996 Painted Bride Quarterly chapbook competition. His most recent collections of poems include Being a Father, which was published in July 2004; the chapbook Fire Before the Hands, which won the Anabiosis Press, 2007 chapbook prize; and Disrupting Consensus, which won the Teacher’s Voice chapbook competition and was published in December 2009. Glaser has also edited three anthologies: The Cooke Book (1989), Weavings 2000: The Maryland Millennial Anthology, and a memorial tribute to Lucille Clifton, Come Celebrate with Me (2011).
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 Page 26
