How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton

How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton

2020 • 256 pages

I'll never feel comfortable gauging the quality of poetry when I know my reading comprehension of same is lacking. There were obviously strong themes of Black experience, Black trauma, talking about enslavement, genocide, racism. There were aspects of Clifton's life, being a Black woman, surviving cancer, and what I think were references to child loss and abuse. High on religious references, which are not my thing. 
It will no doubt come across as shallow given the majority of the subject matter, but my favourite poem was Light. Thesaurus entry as poem scratches my brain just right.

December 29, 2023