Divining Poets: Clifton
Clifton, Lucille / Smith, Tracy K. / Trinidad, David
Plainspoken, empowering, spare, wise beyond measure, Clifton’s words are a balm and a force of good for all: “The surest failure / is the unattempted walk.”Tracy K. Smith took a poetry workshop with Lucille Clifton following the death of her mother. The experience was an awakening. Clifton spoke of her own losses, centering not on the ideas of “letting go” or “making peace, ” but of sustained communication with the departed. Clifton’s practice...