Poetry Is Not a Luxury

by Audre Lorde

Genres: Poetry, Essays, Nonfiction, Feminism, African American, Read For School, Race

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1977

About the author

Audre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone."

Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.

Read More

Reviews

[shi ❦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a perfect read for Black History Month. A brief essay (just three pages) by Audre Lorde on the power of poetry.

“The white fathers told us, I think therefore I am; and the black mothers in each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams, I feel therefore I can be free. Poetry coins the language to express and charter this revolutionary awareness and demand, the implementation of that freedom.”

“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”

[Shaazia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"For within living structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanisation, our feelings were not meant to survive. Kept around as unavoidable adjuncts or pleasant pastimes, feelings were expected to kneel to thought as women were expected to kneel to men. But women have survived. As poets."

I'm crying.

[prantika · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I feel therefore I can be free" is such a better sentence than "I think therefore I am"

[Tiya · Rating 5 out of 5]

annotated the everloving fuck out of this and my brain is never going to be the same again. dont regret a thing, audre lorde's writing is living, breathing force leaving wrecked remains of everything that is conformist (exclusively so) and unjust in its wake

[გვანცა! · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel, therefore I can be free

[Bel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Ishita]

My shadow, finally inked on earth.

[Emilee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I read something by Lorde my world is always altered and I think that's so incredible.

[Maren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the type of essay that I will need to read a couple times to fully grasp the meaning from. I discovered this work while reading Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, and I see how they link together very well. However, my first read through I ran the gamut of confusion to passion and back again. I really liked the prose in the writing as well as the thesis of the essay. Although the essay was centered around black women, it expands meaning to all women. I really liked the concept of there are no new ideas, just new ways to conceptualize and give life to those ideas. I feel like this is an important intersectional feminist work, and I will think more on this in the next couple days.

"Sometimes we drug ourselves with dreams of new ideas."

"For within structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive."

"Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought."

[Nuha A. Al-Soufi. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this masterpiece, Lorde sang about poetry and feminist theory together. Which made me amazed and confused at the same time!
Yes, I have my own voice, and with it, not only I can change myself, but also I can change the world itself! I really like how I feel after I read something made by Lorde.
Lorde described the woman's place of power as "The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface, it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep."
It's amazing that I was agreeing with Lorde in each word she wrote, but when she said:"The white fathers told us, I think therefore I am; and the black mothers in each of us-the poet-whispers in our dreams, I feel therefore I can be free. Poetry coins the language to express and charter this revolutionary awareness and demand, the implementation of that freedom." she turned up the table.
Thi powerful woman is my new idol.

[Mert · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 Stars (%65/100)

Audre Lorde was an extremely important woman during the feminist movement, especially for African-American women. Since I am a fan of poetry, this was very interesting to read. Lorde talks about the necessity of literature, poetry specifically, for women. Women should use poetry to express themselves and make people listen to them. Great essay about poetry and women's movement.

[·˚ ༘✧･ﾟ:* · Rating 5 out of 5]

— "I speak here of poetry as a revelatory distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean"

— "Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought"

— "The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us—the poet—whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free."

[Blake Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

"However, experience has taught us that action in the now is also necessary, always. Our children cannot dream unless they live, they cannot live unless they are nourished, and who else will feed them the real food without which their dreams will be no different from ours? 'If you want us to change the world someday, we at least have to live long enough to grow up!' shouts the child."

[giu · Rating 5 out of 5]

(essay)

this made me FEEL. SERIOUSLY A WORK OF ART I LOVE WOMEN SO MUCH I LOVE LITERATURE SO MUCH JESUS CHRIST THIS!!!!! THIS!!

[Casarina Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel therefore I can be free.”

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel, therefore, I am free

[Shrishti khanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short yet incredibly dense and layered essay that demanded all my heart as I read and re-read it. It is metaphorical and yet explicit in its convictions.

Poetry is an instrument of feeling and experience. Poetry does the vital work of excavation.

The quality of poetry by which we live our lives has a direct bearing upon the product and the change we wish to bring. This is all the more vital for women, people of color, queer people, and oppressed communities that hold a deep source of power and possibility within. Poetry is a revolutionary tool for inspiring abolitionist action. Poetry is a distillery of experience. Poetry is illumination—of the intolerable and frightening. Poetry births thoughts, births revolutions, and awareness. Poetry offers liberation from fear.

𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆.

“𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅. 𝑨𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒔. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔. 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚. 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓…

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆, 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒆.”

This essay is beyond words, beyond an experience. It is a presence felt. That is, the strong presence & conviction of Lorde herself. It opened up so many portals within me. Reading it as a woman, it spoke to me in an ancient, familiar language I knew all along. I felt that unspooling within me.

Poetry allows us, as women, to give language to unexamined and unrecorded emotions that come from places of possibility that have been diminished but have always been namelessly felt.

This was breathtaking. It was communal. It was an honor to read, it was nourishing, it was powerful.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We can train ourselves to respect our feelings, and to discipline (transpose) them into a language that matches those feelings so they can be shared. And where that language does not yet exist, it is our poetry which helps to fashion it. Poetry is not only dream or vision, it is the skeleton architecture of our lives."

I highly recommend this essay as a companion to Natasha Trethewey, Claudia Rankine, and all other Women Poets of Color.

[Aymen Mk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lorde defends her claim that poetry is not luxury, and that the white fathers told us that to be is a cause associated with thinking. In this true jab lies a jab against all women-folk; that to feel is to be a woman, and the feeler is lesser than the thinker, and the thinker is superior. In removing value-judgement, it still holds true that the feeler and the thinker are different, and the thinker creates absolutism in immersion via uncomfortable truths and tales of grandeur. The feeler gently guides you towards the intended path without traumatic self-bloating and boasting that separates the reader and the writer.

Lorde repeatedly stresses that women need poetry to survive, and I believe the case is made for itself that none of what she writes can be proven before the abject and chronic thinker, but can be felt, and truly realized, by the 'feeling-class'.

[untitled no. 9-1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has evolved with poetry, this essay resonated with me, however I wish it was a little longer and incorporated some examples of women revolutionaries and dissed the white fathers a little more. The language is sometimes repetitive but it makes her points clear.

[trinity faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I return upon this essay I come out of it transformed. It is in and of itself poetry. Brilliant and indelibly compelling. Lorde writes with the exacting force she describes to be necessitated by poetic form. Far be it from me to write with a desire for imagination without insight.

[Dominique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried reading this.

[Alyssa Figueroa]

It showed me a lot of things and true meaning it was very interesting.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential text

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short essay explains everything! It’s 3-6 pages long, so you could go read it in less time than it would take me to write a proper review. It is in _Sister Outsider_.

[catherine ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sometimes we drug ourselves with dreams of new ideas."

[maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite essays ever.

[meg (the.hidden.colophon) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Poetry is not only a dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”

[Iskra Profil nije aktivan u ovo vreme. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rekla bih da ima novih ideja. I mnogo mi je drago što sam pročitala ovo.

[feux d'artifice · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS!!!! IS!!!!! SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!