SOURCE: "Lucille Clifton: Warm Water, Greased Legs, and Dangerous Poetry," Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, edited by Mari Evans, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984, pp. 150-60

In the following essay, poet, critic, and educator Madhubuti discusses the language and cultural sensitivity of Clifton's poetry

In everything she creates, this Lucille Clifton, a writer of no ordinary substance, a singer of faultless ease and able storytelling, there is a message. No slogans or billboards, but words that are used refreshingly to build us, make us better, stronger, and whole. Words that defy the odds and in the end make us wiser.

Lucille Clifton is a woman of majestic presence, a full-time wife, over-time mother, part-time street activist and writer of small treasures (most of her books are small but weighty). That she is not known speaks to, I feel, her preoccupation with truly becoming a full Black woman and...