And that’s what she puts into “ Who Said It Was Simple,” part of her 1973 collection From a Land Where Other People Live, which was nominated for a National Book Award. 'Who Said It Was Simple' (1973)Įvery part of Lorde’s identity was outside the acceptable mainstream, a heavy burden to carry. “Love is a word another kind of open- / As a diamond comes into a knot of flame / I am black because I come from the earth's inside / Take my word for jewel in your open light,” she concludes. She starts it off saying, “I / Is the total black, being spoken / From the earth’s inside,” while contemplating how rhetoric, language and politics tie together. Not only did it later become the title poem for another book, but the poem is her declaration of her own identity and celebration of being Black. Here are just a few of Lorde’s most inspiring works: 'Coal' (1968)įirst appearing in her 1968 debut collection The First Cities, “ Coal” might be Lorde’s most defining work. Croix in 1992, continued to raise her voice on essential issues throughout her lifetime, saying: “I write because I am a warrior and my poetry is my primary weapon.”
She also became New York State's poet laureate in 1991. While she did also write essays and prose, it was Lorde’s poems that carried the most power, including her collections The First Cities (1968), From a Land Where Other People Live (1973), New York Head Shop and Museum (1975) and The Black Unicorn (1978). “I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain,” she once said. She taught poetry in West Germany and New York City and became a leading voice, advocating for racial and social justice. But her works revealed a sensibility far beyond her age as they reflected themes of racism, sexuality, classism and homophobia.īorn in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood in 1934, the daughter of Caribbean immigrants called herself “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” and she explored the depths of how all those facets were tied together. The only way she felt she could express her identity was through poetry, which she started writing in middle school, becoming a published poet by the time she was 15. READ MORE: 15 Inspiring Audre Lorde Quotes “I cannot be simply a Black person and not be a woman too, nor can I be a woman without being a lesbian.”
“I am not one piece of myself,” she said in a 1979 interview. Audre Lorde never felt like she fit into a box - and any category she did identify with reflected just one sliver of who she was.
0 kommentar(er)
