Quilting: Poems 1987-1990

by Lucille Clifton

Brilliantly honed language, sharp rhythms and striking syntax empower Lucille Clifton's personal and artistic odyssey. Hers is poetry of birth, death, children, community, history, sexuality and spirituality, and she addresses these themes with passion, humor, anger and spiritual awe.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Womens, African American Literature, Feminism, Quilting, African American

89 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Lucille Clifton was an American poet, writer, and educator from New York. Common topics in her poetry include the celebration of her African American heritage, and feminist themes, with particular emphasis on the female body.

She was the first person in her family to finish high school and attend college. She started Howard University on scholarship as a drama major but lost the scholarship two years later.

Thus began her writing career.

Good Times, her first book of poems, was published in 1969. She has since been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and has been honored as Maryland's Poet Laureate.

Ms. Clifton's foray into writing for children began with Some of the Days of Everett Anderson, published in 1970.

In 1976, Generations: A Memoir was published. In 2000, she won the National Book Award for Poetry, for her work "Poems Seven".

From 1985 to 1989, Clifton was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland. From 1995 to 1999, she was a visiting professor at Columbia University. In 2006, she was a fellow at Dartmouth College.

Clifton received the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement posthumously, from the Poetry Society of America.

Reviews

[Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sealey Challenge 2024: 17/31

This poetry collection felt like a blessing, offering such deep exploration of themes that I feel can resonate across generations. In this work, Clifton delves into the intricacies of womanhood, the American civil rights movement, the end of apartheid, the transformation of bodies and minds over time, biblical narratives, the complexities of love and loss, and the painful history of people who were enslaved. What captivated me almost as much as the poems themselves was the thoughtful structure of the collection. Despite the vast array of topics, the collection is masterfully organized, with each section distinct yet interconnected. The poems build upon one another, creating seamless transitions that enhance the reading experience.

But oh the poems. These poems are rich in language that is both accessible and powerful, avoiding overly flowery prose that could detract from their message. Although written in the 1980s and 1990s, these poems feel timeless, addressing themes that are still relevant today and speaking to the universal experiences of women. Some of my favorites include "Quilting," "Whose Side Are You On," "The Birth of Language," "Poem in Praise of Menstruation," "Wishes for Sons," and "Night Sound." Clifton’s storytelling is nothing short of brilliant, and I eagerly anticipate exploring more of her work in the future.

[Megan Alyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clifton is such a badass. She really does great things with repetition which is a craft element to notice despite the fluidity in the way she implements it. I really like her approach to her own vulnerability. I’ve read other poems of hers in the past. Based off that, this isn’t her strongest collection. But i enjoyed it and read it in one sitting, so that says something.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I repent for not having found you sooner, Mama Lucille. Now that I have found you, I’ll never let you go.

Favorite poems from this collection:
“memo”, “from the wisdom of sister brown”, “we are running”, “to my last period”, “wishes for sons”, “after the reading”, “blessing the boats”

Selah…

[Paola · Rating 5 out of 5]

"i the only lucifer
light-bringer
created out of fire
illuminate i could
and so
illuminate i did"

ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL from start to finish.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucille Clifton is a poet I am drawn to again and again. I first read these poems in the early 90s. I consider them old friends.

[Patch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think there's something really beautiful in the way Clifton conveys race and gender, she doesn't explicitly mention it that much, but she also doesn't let the reader forget it. Like, these poems just sort of carry the heaviness of black womanhood in a way that would make it very difficult to just pull out a pretty string of words for a postcard or something. The context is welded to the words. My favorite in this book was Wild Blessings.

[Julianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hell yes. The italicized notes--poems responding to significant murders, headlines announcing the decline of cockroaches, the date of her cancer diagnosis--make every poem so much richer. Like O. Butler's end notes on her stories.

[andré crombie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“the language palpable,
their palm prints folded around
the names of the things.
seasons like skin
snuggled against fingerbone
and their wonder at loving
someone like you perhaps,
even your absence tangible,
your cold name fastened
into their shivering hands.”

[julie | eggmama]

Favorites:
- the beginning of the end of the world (idk poems about cockroaches always slap)
- wild blessings (1, 2)
- december 7, 1989
- blessing the boats

[Samantha Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grandma we are poets
for anpeyo brown

autism: from Webster’s New Universal Dictionary
and the Random House encyclopedia

in psychology a state of mind
characterized by daydreaming

say rather
i imagined myself
in the place before
language imprisoned itself
in words

by failure to use language normally

say rather that labels
and names rearranged themselves
into description
so that what i saw
i wanted to say

by hallucinations, and ritualistic and repetitive
patterns of behavior
such as excessive rocking and spinning

say rather circling and
circling my mind i am sure i imagined
children without small rooms
imagined young men black and
filled with holes imagined
girls imagined old men penned
imagined actual humans
howling their animal fear

by failure to relate to others

say rather they began
to recede to run back
ward as it were
into a world of words
apartheid hunger war
i could not follow

by disregard of external reality,
withdrawing into a private world

say rather i withdrew
to seek within myself
some small reassurance
that tragedy while vast
is bearable

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

tree of life sequence by lucille > all of paradise lost, john milton can fight me

[Sanjuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sixth collection I've read of Clifton's and with each one I feel I understand her work a bit more, and can make more assured statements about the work; its quality and its themes and structures. If there is any one thing of which I'm sure, it's that Clifton is both a wonderful poet, and a poor one, all at the same time. She's a good poet because she's raw, and honest, and brave, and evocative. She's an insightful and provocative thinker. She's a poor poet because she never evolves as an artist, her structures are bare and lazily formed, and her themes are rehashed too often across years and collections. Clifton had a few basic themes and ideas, most of them social and political (though she often touchingly writes of her family), and her poetry is more about expelling the depths of her mind than about crafting beautiful poetry. In my view, Clifton appears to see poetry more as release and discourse than craft, more of a communication medium than an artistic puzzle to be solved. None of this is to say that her poorer qualities make her bad in total; there are many who love her poetry for what it is and never mind (nor notice) that her style never changes and her themes lack diversity. All well and good. For me, after reading over 400 pages of her poetry this year alone, I'm starting to feel the drain of never being surprised by anything she writes.

This collection certainly had its stars. Many have commented on her "Tree of Life" sequence. I found it confounding, and, to the degree I understood it, blasphemous. I loved "moonchild," "after the reading," and "water sign woman."

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars.

Poetry normally isn’t my thing. I got a copy of this book because of the title and cover and a fellow bookstagrammer posted it and the first poem on their Instagram page. I now have a new female writer crush. While not all the poems in Quilting resonated with me, the ones that did really did.

we are running

running and
time is clocking us
from the edge like an only
daughter.
our mothers stream before us,
cradling their breasts in their
hands.
oh pray that what we want
is worth this running,
pray that what we’re running
toward
is what we want.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this and it really surprised me. I'm not a poetry person in the slightest. And I guess to put that in perspective it's like I can read a poem, enjoy it, but then in ten minutes it's completely wiped from my thoughts and I have trouble remembering what it's about. So I'm really not qualified to give an in depth reading except for I really did enjoy it and I'm still thinking about it hours later. My favorite sections were the one titled quilting and eight pointed star.

[Julia Bucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

whose side are you on?

the side of the busstop woman
trying to drag her bag
up the front steps before the doors
clang shut i am on her side
i give her exact change
and him the old man hanging by
one strap his work hand folded shut
as the bus doors i am on his side
when he needs to leave
i ring the bell i am on their side
riding the late bus into the same
someplace i am on the dark side always
the side of my daughters
the side of my tired sons
-lucille clifton

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really beautiful collection of poems. My favorites were mostly in the "Eight Pointed Star" and "Tree of Life" sections. I particularly loved these lines from the former:

i don't know how to do
what i do in the way
that i do it. it happens
despite me and I pretend

to deserve it.

but i don't know how to do it.
only sometimes when
something is singing
i listen and so far

i hear.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

For as much poetry as I read, across styles and eras, I can’t think of a single poet I enjoy reading more than Lucille Clifton. Quilting collects a range of her poems, varied in theme but united by her consistently plain spoken presentation and trademark precision. It’s as good as everything else I’ve read by her, which is to say it’s fantastic, a book of small marvels.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

unsurprisingly i am transfixed by lucille clifton’s poetry. in particular, the sections “tree of life” and “prayer” drew me in, though i found these other poems just as delightful:
- the untitled first poem of “log cabin”
- “shooting star”
- “defending my tongue”
- “we are running”
- “nude photograph”
- “water sign woman”
- “to my last period” (because of course!)

and so many more.

[Dorian Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, moving poems. I've read it through twice now and intend on continuing. Covering everything from racism to misogyny to motherhood, Lucille Clifton boils these complex feelings and experiences into simple, accessible and bold poems. She says so much with so little—true expertise.

[Kw · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant and engaging read. I especially enjoyed the poems in the first section, plus "from the wisdom of sister brown." Despite a few misses for me personally, this is pretty brilliant overall. Clifton can conjure whole worlds in just a few short lines.

[Connor McMahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most musical and subtle writers, Clifton uses sparse language to create oftentimes breathtaking poems. Her poems strike me as incredibly humble while massively spiritually insightful. She’s a poet of great inspiration.

[Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timeless poems that inspire

[book rat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trust me read it

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wondrous

[Amanda Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true blanket of poems that warm, comfort, and envelop. Every part was as great as the whole.

[Natalie T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, approachable, fierce, witty, passionate, alive, unforgettable. Every line a home-truth.

[Lauren]

I don’t understand poetry well and this collection was no different. But the poems I liked I liked enough to dogear the pages.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of these poems and others seemed stilted and awkward. I think some of Clifton's earlier work was much better.

[Matt Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clifton writes beautifully and insightfully about life, death, and everything faced between.

[Jace Ellis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really don’t like poetry. Don’t understand it. Understood about half of 5 poems. There were 63 in the book