The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Clifton, Lucille. "homage to my hips." Two-Headed Woman (University of Massachusetts Press, 1980).

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Clifton’s 1980 poem “homage to my hips” is composed of a single stanza of 15 lines written in free verse. Throughout the collection Two-Headed Woman as well as in Clifton’s poetic oeuvre, she locates the body as a place of identity, value, and celebration. The collection was a Pulitzer nominee and winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry. “homage to my hips” touches upon issues of race and gender as the speaker asserts her freedom inside a body oppressed for being Black, large, and female.

In the poem, the speaker describes how her big hips need space and freedom to move around in. Using words like “mighty” and “magic,” the speaker continues praising her hips for their size, freedom, and ability to enchant men.