I am a Poet by nature and I find much comfort in the written word. Sometimes, no explanation is needed. Many times the images speak for themselves. I would like to share a wonderful poem by the courageously bold Audre Lorde. I am particularly fond of "Coal" and have often recited it aloud just to hear the images reverberate in the air. You might also want to read "A Woman Speaks".
Audre Lorde was undefined by conventional standards of beauty, of sexuality, of the so-called Black voice. Her sharply sensuous descriptions dance and explore and punctuate and excite and challenge and...
I hope you enjoy what is one of my favorite poems:
Coal
by Audre Lorde
I
Is the total black, being spoken
From the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open.
How a diamond comes into a knot of flame
How a sound comes into a word, coloured
By who pays what for speaking.
Some words are open
Like a diamond on glass windows
Singing out within the crash of passing sun
Then there are words like stapled wagers
In a perforated book—buy and sign and tear apart—
And come whatever wills all chances
The stub remains
An ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
Breeding like adders. Others know sun
Seeking like gypsies over my tongue
To explode through my lips
Like young sparrows bursting from shell.
Some words
Bedevil me.
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.
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