Contents

Early Uncollected Poems (1965–1969)

  1. BLACK WOMEN
  2. OLD HUNDRED
  3. THE OLD AVAILABLES HAVE
  4. CHAN’S DREAM
  5. from Dark Nursery Rhymes for a Dark Daughter
  6. 5/23/67 R.I.P.
  7. ONLY TOO HIGH IS HIGH ENOUGH
  8. THE COMING OF X
  9. Conversation Overheard in a Graveyard
  10. SUNDAY DINNER
  11. MY FRIEND MARY STONE FROM OXFORD MISSISSIPPI
  12. SPRING THOUGHT FOR THELMA
  13. my mother teached me
  14. To Mama too late
  15. Dear Mama
  16. Dear
  17. Dear
  18. plain as a baby
  19. Everytime i talk about
  20. satchmo
  21. FOR PRISSLY
  22. the last Seminole is black
  23. a poem written for many moynihans
  24. the poet is thirty two
  25. QUOTATIONS FROM AUNT MARGARET BROWN
  26. daddy
  27. take somebody like me
  28. let them say

good times (1969)

  1. in the inner city
  2. my mama moved among the days
  3. my daddy’s fingers move among the couplers
  4. lane is the pretty one
  5. miss rosie
  6. robert
  7. the 1st
  8. running across to the lot
  9. still
  10. good times
  11. if i stand in my window
  12. stops
  13. the discoveries of fire
  14. those boys that ran together
  15. pity this poor animal
  16. the white boy
  17. the meeting after the savior gone
  18. for deLawd
  19. ca’line’s prayer
  20. if he ask you was i laughing
  21. if something should happen
  22. generations
  23. love rejected
  24. tyrone (1)
  25. willie b (1)
  26. tyrone (2)
  27. willie b (2)
  28. tyrone (3)
  29. willie b (3)
  30. tyrone (4)
  31. willie b (4)
  32. buffalo war
  33. flowers
  34. pork chops
  35. now my first wife never did come out of her room
  36. the way it was
  37. admonitions

good news about the earth (1972)

  1. about the earth
    1. after kent state
    2. being property once myself
    3. the way it was
    4. the lost baby poem
    5. later i’ll say
    6. apology
    7. lately
    8. the ’70s
    9. listen children
    10. driving through new england
    11. the news
    12. the bodies broken on
    13. song
    14. prayer
  2. heroes
    1. africa
    2. i am high on the man called crazy
    3. earth
    4. for the bird who flew against our window one morning and broke his natural neck
    5. God send easter
    6. so close
    7. wise: having the ability to perceive and adopt the best means for accomplishing an end.
    8. malcolm
    9. eldridge
    10. to bobby seale
    11. for her hiding place
    12. richard penniman
    13. daddy
    14. poem for my sisters
    15. the kind of man he is
  3. some jesus
    1. adam and eve
    2. cain
    3. moses
    4. solomon
    5. job
    6. daniel
    7. jonah
    8. john
    9. mary
    10. joseph
    11. the calling of the disciples
    12. the raising of lazarus
    13. palm sunday
    14. good friday
    15. easter sunday
    16. spring song

Uncollected Poems (1973–1974)

  1. Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival
  2. All of Us Are All of Us

an ordinary woman (1974)

  1. sisters
    1. in salem
    2. sisters
    3. leanna’s poem
    4. on the birth of bomani
    5. salt
    6. a storm poem
    7. god’s mood
    8. new bones
    9. harriet
    10. roots
    11. come home from the movies
    12. to ms. ann
    13. my boys
    14. last note to my girls
    15. a visit to gettysburg
    16. monticello
    17. to a dark moses
    18. Kali
    19. this morning
  2. i agree with the leaves
    1. the lesson of the falling leaves
    2. i am running into a new year
    3. the coming of Kali
    4. she insists on me
    5. she understands me
    6. she is dreaming
    7. her love poem
    8. calming Kali
    9. i am not done yet
    10. the poet
    11. turning
    12. my poem
    13. lucy one-eye
    14. if mama
    15. i was born in a hotel
    16. light
    17. cutting greens
    18. jackie robinson
    19. i went to the valley
    20. at last we killed the roaches
    21. in the evenings
    22. breaklight
    23. some dreams hang in the air
    24. the carver
    25. let there be new flowering
    26. the thirty eighth year

Uncollected Poems (ca. 1975)

  1. Anniversary 5/10/74
  2. November 1, 1975
  3. “We Do Not Know Very Much About Lucille’s Inner Life”

two-headed woman (1980)

  1. homage to mine
    1. lucy and her girls
    2. i was born with twelve fingers
    3. homage to my hair
    4. homage to my hips
    5. what the mirror said
    6. there is a girl inside
    7. to merle
    8. august the 12th
    9. on the death of allen’s son
    10. speaking of loss
    11. to thelma who worried because i couldn’t cook
    12. poem on my fortieth birthday to my mother who died young
    13. februrary 13, 1980
    14. forgiving my father
    15. to the unborn and waiting children
    16. aunt agnes hatcher tells
    17. the once and future dead
  2. two-headed woman
    1. in this garden
    2. the making of poems
    3. new year
    4. sonora desert poem
    5. my friends
    6. wife
    7. i once knew a man
    8. angels
    9. conversation with my grandson, waiting to be conceived
    10. the mystery that surely is present
    11. the astrologer predicts at mary’s birth
    12. anna speaks of the childhood of mary her daughter
    13. mary’s dream
    14. how he is coming then
    15. holy night
    16. a song of mary
    17. island mary
    18. mary     mary astonished by God
    19. for the blind
    20. for the mad
    21. for the lame
    22. for the mute
    23. God waits for the wandering world
    24. the light that came to lucille clifton
  3. the light that came to lucille clifton
    1. testament
    2. incandescence
    3. mother, i am mad
    4. perhaps
    5. explanations
    6. friends come
    7. to joan
    8. confession
    9. in populated air

Next (1987)

  1. we are all next
    1. album
    2. winnie song
    3. there
    4. what spells raccoon to me
    5. this belief
    6. why some people be mad at me sometimes
    7. sorrow song
    8. I. at creation
    9. I. at gettysburg
    10. I. at nagasaki
    11. I. at jonestown
    12. atlantic is a sea of bones
    13. cruelty. don’t talk to me about cruelty
    14. the woman in the camp
    15. the lost women
    16. 4 daughters
    17. grown daughter
    18. here is another bone to pick with you
    19. female
    20. if our grandchild be a girl
    21. this is the tale
    22. my dream about being white
    23. my dream about the cows
    24. my dream about time
    25. my dream about falling
    26. my dream about the second coming
    27. my dream about God
    28. my dream about the poet
    29. morning mirror
  2. or next
    1. the death of crazy horse
    2. crazy horse names his daughter
    3. crazy horse instructs the young men but in their grief they forget
    4. the message of crazy horse
    5. the death of thelma sayles
    6. lives
    7. the message of thelma sayles
    8. the death of joanne c.
    9. enter my mother
    10. leukemia as white rabbit
    11. incantation
    12. chemotherapy
    13. she won’t ever forgive me
    14. the one in the next bed is dying
    15. leukemia as dream/ritual
    16. the message of jo
    17. chorus: lucille
    18. the death of fred clifton
    19. “i’m going back to my true identity”
    20. my wife
    21. the message of fred clifton
  3. singing
    1. in white america
      1. 1 i come to read them poems
      2. 2 the history
      3. 3 the tour
      4. 4 the hall
      5. 5 the reading
      6. 6 it is late
    2. shapeshifter poems
      1. 1 the legend is whispered
      2. 2 who is there to protect her
      3. 3 if the little girl lies
      4. 4 the poem at the end of the world
    3. california lessons
      1. 1 geography
      2. 2 history
      3. 3 botany
      4. 4 semantics
      5. 5 metaphysics

quilting (1991)

[section titles are taken from the names of traditional quilt designs]

  1. quilting
  1. log cabin
    1. i am accused of tending to the past
    2. note to myself
    3. poem beginning in no and ending in yes
    4. february 11, 1990
    5. at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989
    6. slave cabin, sotterly plantation, maryland, 1989
    7. white lady
    8. memo
    9. reply
    10. whose side are you on?
    11. shooting star
    12. poem with rhyme in it
    13. eyes
    14. defending my tongue
  2. catalpa flower
    1. from the wisdom of sister brown
    2. the birth of language
    3. we are running
    4. what the grass knew
    5. nude photograph
    6. this is for the mice that live
    7. sleeping beauty
    8. a woman who loves
    9. man and wife
    10. poem in praise of menstruation
    11. peeping tom
    12. ways you are not like oedipus
    13. the killing of the trees
    14. questions and answers
    15. november 21, 1988
    16. the beginning of the end of the world
    17. the last day
  3. eight-pointed star
    1. wild blessings
    2. somewhere
    3. when i stand around among poets
    4. water sign woman
    5. photograph
    6. grandma, we are poets
    7. december 7, 1989
    8. to my friend, jerina
    9. lot’s wife     1988
    10. fat fat water rat
    11. poem to my uterus
    12. to my last period
    13. wishes for sons
    14. the mother’s story
    15. in which i consider the fortunate deaf
    16. 4/25/89     late
    17. as he was dying
    18. night sound
    19. the spirit walks in
    20. after the reading
    21. moonchild
  4. tree of life
    1. oh where have you fallen to
    2. remembering the birth of lucifer
    3. whispered to lucifer
    4. eve’s version
    5. lucifer understanding at last
    6. the garden of delight
    7. adam thinking
    8. eve thinking
    9. the story thus far
    10. lucifer speaks in his own voice
  5. prayer
    1. blessing the boats

The Book of Light (1992)

  1. LIGHT
  1. reflection
    1. climbing
    2. june 20
    3. daughters
    4. sam
    5. my lost father
    6. thel
    7. imagining bear
    8. c.c. rider
    9. 11/10 again
    10. she lived
    11. for roddy
    12. them and us
    13. the women you are accustomed to
    14. song at midnight
    15. won’t you celebrate with me
  2. lightning bolt
    1. it was a dream
    2. each morning i pull myself
    3. here yet be dragons
    4. the yeti poet returns to his village to tell his story
    5. crabbing
    6. the earth is a living thing
    7. move
    8. samson predicts from gaza the philadelphia fire
    9. january 1991
    10. dear jesse helms,
    11. if i should
    12. further note to clark
    13. begin here
    14. night vision
    15. fury
    16. cigarettes
    17. final note to clark
    18. note, passed to superman
    19. the rough weight of it
  3. splendor
    1. seeker of visions
    2. nothing about the moment
    3. atlas
    4. sarah’s promise
    5. naomi watches as ruth sleeps
    6. cain
    7. leda 1
    8. leda 2
    9. leda 3
    10. far memory
    11. brothers

Uncollected Poems (1993)

  1. hometown 1993
  2. ones like us

The Terrible Stories (1996)

  1. telling our stories
  1. 1. A Dream of Foxes
    1. fox
    2. the coming of fox
    3. dear fox
    4. leaving fox
    5. one year later
    6. a dream of foxes
  2. 2. From the Cadaver
    1. amazons
    2. lumpectomy eve
    3. consulting the book of changes: radiation
    4. 1994
    5. scar
    6. hag riding
    7. down the tram
    8. rust
    9. from the cadaver
  3. 3. A Term in Memphis
    1. shadows
    2. slaveships
    3. entering the south
    4. the mississippi river empties into the gulf
    5. old man river
    6. the son of medgar
    7. auction street
    8. memphis
    9. what comes after this
    10. blake
  4. 4. In the Meantime
    1. evening and my dead once husband
    2. memory
    3. my sanctified grandmother
    4. lee
    5. album
    6. what did she know, when did she know it
    7. in the same week
    8. heaven
    9. lorena
    10. in the meantime
  5. 5. From the Book of David
    1. dancer
    2. son of jesse
    3. david has slain his ten thousands
    4. to michal
    5. enemies
    6. beloved
    7. bathsheba
    8. the prophet
    9. oh absalom my son my son
    10. david, musing
    11. what manner of man

Blessing the Boats (2000)

  1. new poems
    1. the times
    2. signs
    3. moonchild
    4. dialysis
    5. donor
    6. libation
    7. the photograph: a lynching
    8. jasper    texas    1998
    9. alabama 9/15/63
    10. what i think when i ride the train
    11. praise song
    12. august
    13. study the masters
    14. lazarus (first day)
    15. lazarus (second day)
    16. lazarus (third day)
    17. birthday 1999
    18. grief
    19. report from the angel of eden

Mercy (2004)

  1. last words
    1. the gift
    2. out of body
    3. dying
    4. last words
    5. oh antic God
    6. april
    7. after one year
    8. sonku
    9. children
  2. stories
    1. surely i am able to write poems
    2. mulberry fields
    3. the river between us
    4. cancer
    5. in the mirror
    6. blood
    7. a story
    8. mercy
    9. here rests
    10. after oz
    11. the Phantom
    12. Powell
    13. walking the blind dog
    14. hands
    15. wind on the st. marys river
    16. the tale the shepherds tell the sheep
    17. stop
  3. september song a poem in 7 days
    1. 1     tuesday 9/11/01
    2. 2     wednesday 9/12/01
    3. 3     thursday 9/13/01
    4. 4     friday 9/14/01
    5. 5     saturday 9/15/01
    6. 6     sunday morning 9/16/01
    7. 7     monday sundown 9/17/01
  4. the message from The Ones (received in the late 70s)
  5. beginning of message
    1. your mother sends you this
    2. come to here
    3. you
    4. we are ones
    5. in the saying of
    6. we are here
    7. why should we wander bone yards
    8. some of you have been blessed
    9. you come to teach
    10. in the geometry
    11. we
    12. god
    13. the angels have no wings
    14. you who feel yourself
    15. you wish to speak of
    16. you are not
    17. the universe requires the worlds
    18. you have placed yourselves
    19. whether in spirit
    20. the air
    21. the patience
    22. what has been made
    23. there is a star
  6. end of message

Voices (2008)

  1. hearing
    1. “marley was dead to begin with”
    2. aunt jemima
    3. uncle ben
    4. cream of wheat
    5. horse prayer
    6. raccoon prayer
    7. dog’s god
    8. albino
    9. mataoka
    10. witko
    11. what haunts him
    12. my grandfather’s lullaby
    13. “you have been my tried and trusted friend”
    14. lu     1942
    15. sorrows
  2. being heard
    1. this is what i know
    2. my father hasn’t come back
    3. dad
    4. faith
    5. afterblues
    6. the dead do dream
    7. “in 1844 explorers John Fremont and Kit Carson discovered Lake Tahoe”
    8. mirror
    9. 6/27/06
    10. in amira’s room
    11. for maude
    12. highway 89 toward tahoe
  3. ten oxherding pictures
    1. a meditation on ten oxherding pictures
    2. 1st picture     searching for the ox
    3. 2nd picture     seeing the traces
    4. 3rd picture     seeing the ox
    5. 4th picture     catching the ox
    6. 5th picture     herding the ox
    7. 6th picture     coming home on the ox’s back
    8. 7th picture     the ox forgotten     leaving the man alone
    9. 8th picture     the ox and the man both gone out of sight
    10. 9th picture     returning to the origin back to the source
    11. 10th picture     entering the city with bliss-bestowing hands
    12. end of meditation
    13. note

Uncollected Poems (2006–2010)

  1. Book of Days (2006)
    1. birth-day
    2. godspeak: out of paradise
    3. lucifer morning-star to man-kind after the fall: in like kind
    4. man-kind: in image of
    5. angelspeak
    6. mother-tongue: the land of nod
    7. mother-tongue: to the child just born
    8. mother-tongue: after the child’s death
    9. mother-tongue: after the flood
    10. the rainbow bears witness
    11. nineveh: waiting
    12. mother-tongue: babylon
    13. mother-tongue: to man-kind
    14. godspeak
    15. mother-tongue: we are dying
    16. mother-tongue: in a dream before she died
    17. sodom and gomorrah
    18. prodigal
    19. man-kind: over the jordan, into the promised land
    20. lucifer morning-star
    21. armageddon
    22. man-kind: digging a trench to hell
    23. godspeak: kingdom come
  2. Last Poems & Drafts (2006–2010)
    1. 6/27/06 seventy (2008)
    2. some points along some of the meridians (2007)
    3. untitled (2006)
    4. she leans out from the mirror (2006)
    5. Titled (2006)
    6. new orleans (2006)
    7. after the children died she started bathing (2007)
    8. haiku (2008)
    9. An American Story (2008)
    10. God Bless America (2008)
    11. In the middle of the Eye (2010)