Winning Essays from the Amy S. McCombs Frederick P. Currier Writing Award Contest

Marygrove College, Winter 2000

family of foxes

Gwendolyn Denham

Lucifer: Bringing Readers Light

Lucifer is the epitome and personification of all that is evil according to the traditional American perspective. His name has been linked with the name Satan so that either name refers to "the Devil" in most of the western Christian tradition. American culture, with its Puritan roots and Fundamentalist influences, has cast Lucifer in the role of the eternal enemy of all that we hold to be good and worthwhile. Preachers and others who teach Christian morality have described his power as being great enough to tempt all of us, at the same time, into sin. He seeks to lead us away from God and into his own realm of fear, torment, and undying agony. He is to be shunned and feared, lest he bring us to perdition. He is not human and he possesses none of the traits of a good person, only the bad ones.

Lucille Clifton uses Lucifer in quite a number of her poems. She does not use him in the traditional role of the inhuman enemy who is to be feared. Rather, she imbues him with human qualities and shows him as a flawed being who was, nevertheless, loved and missed by those who knew him best. She instead reflects back to Lucifer’s Promethean history as the "son of the morning" (Isaiah 14:12). As Lucifer says in "lucifer speaks in his own voice" from Quilting, "illuminate I could / and so / illuminate I did" (22-24). This use of the personification of all that is evil in a possibly non-evil context causes the reader to reflect upon their understanding of Lucifer and his influence in an environment without clear-cut definitions of right and wrong, which brings about a fundamental change in the readers outlook on Lucifer.

In Clifton’s poetry Lucifer is not only presented as the object of another’s voice, but also in his own voice. The first presentation gives the reader new eyes with which to perceive Lucifer. In "oh where have you fallen to…" from Quilting, Heaven’s response to the loss of Lucifer is one of mourning where the speaker states that "it is all shadow / in heaven without you"(5-6). This is certainly not the image of the eternal enemy that we have been taught by everyone from the backwoods, country preacher to Dana Carvey’s character Church Lady on Saturday Night Live. The speaker in the poem shows affection for Lucifer and implies that Heaven is less because of the loss of him. Readers must readjust their assumptions regarding what the "right" feeling about Lucifer is because, if one is taught to fear and avoid someone else, then the normal result is the development of hatred toward the one that we are forced to fear and avoid. Since the response of the speaker in the poem seems to be far from one of hatred, then is the reader supposed to continue to hate him?

The issue becomes no less clouded in "remembering the birth of lucifer" from Quilting when the speaker says that Lucifer’s brilliant emergence "from the littlest finger / of God" (4-5) caused the seraphim – the highest rank of angels – to believe that "it was too much for / one small heaven"(12-13). This implies that Lucifer was a brilliant creation of God whose very existence was a thing of wonder – not the image of a perverted scoundrel existing in the fear of heavenly retribution that has been taught to many readers. Such brilliance from God’s own hand is difficult to condemn. In fact, his disgrace seems to be taken hard by the heavenly host. In "whispered to lucifer" from Quilting, one of the angels tells Lucifer about how he feels by concluding that Lucifer’s departure has left the remaining angels "less radiant / less sure" (19-20). This gives the impression that Lucifer was an integral part of Heaven and that he is missed. The reader will find that this does not match the view of Heaven’s righteous wrath against him. The reader will also be questioning how he can be so missed in Heaven when American culture teaches that he represents everything that Heaven is against. I speak only of the culture that I have experienced. It is probably true for other cultures as well, but I have not experienced those well enough to say.

When Clifton gives Lucifer his own voice in her poetry, there is a marked absence of hateful protestations and rhetoric. The "Father of Lies," as he has been referred to in many pulpits, does not speak as one who is trying to persuade God or mankind that what he did was right. Rather, he seems to be reconciled not only to himself, but also to his destiny as he sees it. In "lucifer understanding at last" from Quilting, he addresses God with the preface "thy servant lord" (1) and goes on to refer to his activities as "doing holy work" (8). He does not apologize for his activities, and he does not construct a defense for them either. By "understanding at last," as the title suggests, Lucifer seems to be on the same side as God. If God and Lucifer are on the same side, it is difficult to understand how we are to love God and despise Lucifer.

Clifton delves deeper into the thoughts of Lucifer in the eight-poem sequence in The Book of Light entitled "brothers." This sequence is Lucifer’s side of a conversation that he is having with God some time in the future. The opening poem of the sequence, "invitation", has Lucifer concluding his invitation with the lines:

let us rest here a time
like two old brothers
who watched it happen and wondered
what it meant. (13-16)

This bespeaks a friendly and calm relationship between them, as opposed to the acrimony supposed by those who persecute "Satanists" in the name of God. In "as for myself", the third poem of the sequence, Lucifer clearly states his relative position to creation by beginning the poem with the description of himself as "less snake than angel / less angel than man" (1-2). This shows that he views himself as being more human than anything else. It is interesting that the one who would supposedly try to lead all of mankind into perdition would view himself as being more human than either angel or serpent. He does not understand God or His purpose, and he takes God to task about that in "in my own defense" and "the silence of God is God" – the fourth and sixth poems of the sequence. "in my own defense" has Lucifer telling God of his not understanding either the punishment of Adam and Eve or why he, and not God, chose to follow them out of Eden and be with them. "the silence of God is God" has Lucifer asking God to justify his silence and inaction in the face of the atrocities committed by mankind

The conclusion of the sequence has Lucifer saying that it is only by God and Lucifer’s reaction to God’s plan that he could come to be where and who he was. That he wants to be reconciled to God as he was is shown by his desires stated at the end of each of the last two poems. In the seventh poem, "still there is mercy, there is grace," Lucifer states that he would like to:

curl one day safe and still
beside You
at Your feet, perhaps,
but, amen, Yours. (14-17)

This conclusion shows that, while he has not lost the pride that makes him think that he is worthy of sitting beside God, he is willing to submit in order to remain His. Since the son of the morning was cast out of Heaven for demanding that he be treated as God’s equal, this is quite a concession.

The final poem of the sequence, "…………is God.", has Lucifer explaining that he is imbued not only with a little piece of the tongue of God, but also with the tendency to overuse it. He states the ultimate relationship of himself to God. Since all of existence issued forth from the word of God, the ending of the poem "You kiss my brother mouth. / the rest is silence." (12-13) is quite profound. It implies that when he is joined to God in a kiss, nothing else exists because silence is the absence of the word that created all.

Clifton creates, through all of these poems, a picture of a Lucifer who is recognizable as being truly human. He has human emotions and human motivations. He even sees himself as being more human than anything else. This image of Lucifer causes a reader who has been taught the American cultural description of him to reevaluate their opinion of Lucifer in light of this new perspective. If the personification of all that is evil is, in fact, a human person, then what is evil outside of mankind? The reader is most likely to respond to this question with the response that Lucifer is representative of humanity in its lack of understanding of God and His purpose, and that evil is best defined by humanity because of our lack of understanding. There is no evil except as we misunderstand God’s purpose.

Clifton’s poems about Lucifer ultimately act as Lucifer himself did. Lucifer was the light-bringer – that is, in fact, what the name Lucifer means. Her poems shed light upon our understanding of Lucifer and his role, meaning, and purpose. This light makes it easier for us to see our understandings, but it is still up to us to construct or change that understanding. This is perhaps the best thing for someone whose name, Lucille, also stems from the root word for light.

No Longer Silent: Lucille Clifton Gives Voice to the Voiceless

Rebecca Klein

A prominent theme in the poetry of Lucille Clifton is that of giving voice to groups and individuals whom American culture has historically silenced. In many of her poems, she speaks of her foremothers and the ways they expressed their creativity in a society that gave them few opportunities to do so. In all of these poems, Clifton gives her readers a window into the lives of individuals of whom American culture has historically painted a one-dimensional picture or no picture at all. She also expresses her feeling that it is her responsibility to use her own voice to document past, present, and future through the eyes of those America has wounded and silenced.

In her essay "In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens," Alice Walker talks about how Black women have held onto and expressed their creativity in a country which has abused them beyond comprehension, and how Black female writers of today illustrate that legacy in their work. This is most certainly true of Lucille Clifton. Walker speaks of Black women, "saints" as she calls them, who

dreamed dreams that no one knew-not even themselves, in any coherent fashion-and saw visions no one could understand. They wandered or sat about the countryside crooning lullabies to ghosts…Our mothers and grandmothers, some of them: moving to music not yet written. (2316)

These women have an extremely strong presence in Clifton’s work. Through her poems we see their individuality, and the ways they survived in a society that treated them as inferior in two ways: being both Black and female.

In her poem "slave cabin, sotterly plantation, maryland, 1989" Clifton paints a picture of one of these women, "aunt nanny." In this poem, Clifton describes a bench that belonged to her, and thinks of the long, backbreaking days after which she sat on it. She imagines Aunt Nanny "humming for herself humming / her own sweet human name" (quilting 13), "crooning the lullabies" of Walker’s saints. History, as it is recorded by the dominant American culture, has silenced Aunt Nanny. On the occasions when it mentions her, it lumps her in with millions of other people, calling them "the slaves." The name by which she is called, "Aunt Nanny," itself erases her individuality, being a name that was given to many other older female slaves. Nanny’s cabin and her possessions are "antiques" or "artifacts," symbols not of a woman’s life, but of events the majority of Americans would like to pretend didn’t happen. But through Clifton’s words, Aunt Nanny is remembered as an individual who celebrated her own humanity despite the way the world treated her.

Walker also writes of a magnificent quilt that hangs in the Smithsonian museum (2319). The artist who produced this work is credited only as "an anonymous Black woman." Her anonymity is due probably not to a desire to create an air of mystery around her work, but to the fact that history didn’t care to remember her, and possibly prevented her descendents from knowing her name. This woman, and many others, are present in Clifton’s poem "quilting." A woman says to her daughter "remember/ this will keep us warm"(quilting 3). She speaks not only of the physical warmth the quilt will provide, but also of the comfort and release of artistic expression. She is telling her daughter to remember the value of these things. Like Aunt Nanny’s bench, the quilt in the Smithsonian is a monument not only to times and events, but to people. Clifton’s poetry puts those people at center stage.

In the poem "fury" (BOL 45), the woman at center stage is Clifton’s own mother. In this poem she tells the story of watching her mother throw poems that she had written into the furnace. These poems are her "jewels." She has taken her pain and her rage and the ugliness in her life and used her creativity to turn them into something beautiful: poetry. But unlike quilting or gardening, her chosen outlet for emotion has proven to be too direct. Perhaps her husband could not stand to see his wife’s pain written out in words that jumped up from the page to confront him, so he ordered her to burn them. As she carries out his wish she is violently angry, but "each hank of her hair/is a serpent’s obedient/wife." Since being an "obedient wife" was one of the few roles in which society valued women during Clifton’s childhood, her mother had to burn her poems, to silence her voice, and the poem says "she will never recover." That seems to predict a bleak future, but hope lies in the last three lines.

remember. there is nothing
you will not bear
for this woman’s sake.

Clifton vows to do anything she can for her mother. Although her mother will never recover from having her voiced silenced, Clifton bears the responsibility to use her voice in the way that her mother, and countless women before her, could not use theirs, so that their stories will not remain buried forever.

The poem "at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989" (quilting 11) is addressed to a group of people whose stories and bodies are buried, without even a gravestone bearing their names. These are the people who worked their entire lives to build this plantation, to build this country. The people who owned them, who kept them in chains and beat them, rest under gravestones. These abused people whose backbreaking labor was the only thing keeping the plantation owners in the lifestyle they desired are not recognized even in death. They are denied the dignity of a simple stone marking their final resting-place. And again, the least value is placed on the women, shown in the line "the inventory lists ten slaves/ but only men were recognized." Clifton calls to these people to tell her their "dishonored names" so that she may finally give them the recognition they deserve. The end of the poem

here lies
here lies
here lies
here lies
hear

calls to the reader and to the world to recognize the lies that have been told for centuries, and to open their ears to the names and stories of the people who have been silenced.

This is one of the most important aspects of Clifton’s writing. She calls people to read between the lines of history, to look for the stories we have been prevented from hearing. "Aunt Nanny," the artist of the` quilt, Clifton’s mother, the slaves buried at Walnut Grove Plantation…they are some of the most remarkable people in American history, but for years we have been taught that they have no place, that their stories are not important. As Walker says, these women "moved to music not yet written" (2316). In her poetry, Clifton writes that music. She and other writers like her bring these remarkable people to light, portraying their humanity and individuality in a way which allows the reader to find a point of connection with them, and therefore adding a richness to American history that it is sorely lacking.

Johnetta Mukes

Quilting bees were occasions for women to gather bringing discarded scraps of material, which they masterfully transformed, into works of art. The bee was also a social gathering where women told tales, exchanged ideas, and encouraged one another. Lucille Clifton's collection of poetry entitled Quilting continues the wonderful tradition by skillfully bringing together poems that entertain, inform, and encourage. Two of Clifton's poems, "eve's version" and "a woman who loves," are excellent examples of the quilting process where material is re-worked to reveal a perspective that is female. The poem, "eve's version" defies the negative issues that have arisen from the Christian tradition of the fall of mankind. The present female condition is addressed in the poem, "a woman who loves." Women have been blatantly marginalized in our society and a reading of these Clifton works offers a description of how feminist power has been subverted to construct the inequality of power that is entrenched in our patriarchal culture.

The ancient Greeks attributed the power of love and procreation to women. The goddess Aphrodite exemplifies their knowledge of this fundamental power. Christian doctrine subverts female power by aligning Eve, the original woman, with the fall of man. The power that is life producing is tainted because it is suggested that Lucifer was able to control Eve by manipulating her power. The resulting Christian premise is that Eve must be protected because she is unable to resist the forces of evil. Eve's garden experience resulted in punishment subjecting her to the rule of her husband. It therefore becomes God's will that men should dominate women so that evil can be controlled. Christianity presents us with its model of acceptable womanhood. This model is Mary. Mary, the voiceless eternal virgin does not have the potential for power that was confiscated from her mother Eve. Feminine sensuality and the feminist voice have been effectively subverted in this example of the perfect woman.

Lucille Clifton redresses the Christian narrative in her poem, "eve's version." She begins the poem by asserting that women are responsible for maintaining control over their lives. Genesis, according to Clifton, establishes that Lucifer is the creation of the female mind. Eve is given the power to tell her own story and she states that, "smooth talker / slides into my dreams / and fills them with apple" (74). Lucifer is not viewed as a powerful being but as the product of Eve's dream. The dream is an illusion while Eve is the reality and the source of power in the text. Eve accepts ownership of the dream; it is hers and Clifton makes it clear that Eve is in control of Lucifer and the apple. She avoids the traditional trap of ignorance that society has perpetuated with the male version of the creation myth.

The control of the apple is very significant. The apple has always been a symbol of the basis for man's problems. The apple in Clifton's poem is a metaphor for feminine sensuality and alludes to the feminist power dynamic. The truth about the apple is revealed by Eve, who states,

apple snug as my breast

in the palm of my hand
apple sleek apple sweet
and bright in my mouth. (74)

It is apparent that Eve has control of the apple; it is linked to her breast, her hand, and her mouth. The apple is in the palm of her hand allowing the female grasp to control the perspective witnessed in Clifton's revision of the ancient tale. The apple is compared to the female breast because the breast is a symbol of the erotic and creative power of women. The apple is an ideal symbol for the acknowledgement of feminist power. Its description connotes its desirability. It is snug, sleek, sweet, and bright. The apple of Eve's dream begins as a mental concept but once the concept is grasped the result is the feminist voice. The force of empowerment becomes feminist because the conscious decision to bite the apple is Eve's. The apple that is finally placed in Eve's mouth is controlled by her own hand and consequently the voice is uniquely her own.

The feminist narrative of this work is not a product of supremacy but one of equality. Eve's desire is not the subversion of power but instead it is the honest quest for a true interpretation of feminist power. The fulfillment of Eve's dream is stated by Lucifer, who is no longer the symbol of evil equated with patriarchal ideology but the light-bringer or the symbol of enlightenment Clifton uses in the text. Eve's recognition occurs when Lucifer whispers, "it is your own lush self you hunger for" (74). Eve realizes, as do her daughters that women don't have to be ashamed of the sensuality that defines the wonderful difference of gender nor do they need to be afraid to explore options of empowerment.

Unlike the evocation of the woman in "eve's version," the woman Clifton introduces in "a woman who loves" is trapped in the archaic restrictive perimeters of male construction and dominance. Eve's dream has no been shared with this modern Madonna. It is apparent that society has taken the power contained in the female force of love and used it to control this woman who is constantly at odds with impossible men. This woman "sits a long time indoors / watching her windows" (34) because even though she has a measure of understanding of her own perspective she has been unable to leave the area of her confinement. The window could be a source of enlightenment because it belongs to the woman but she has not allowed herself to venture into the area of female empowerment. This woman is concerned because men do not understand her lack of progress shown by the lines, "she had no brother / who understands / where she is not going" (34). This is a totally different concept than the one Clifton utilizes in "eve's version" where Eve's desire for fulfillment is one of personal understanding or self-knowledge. Eve is able to use and embrace her power of love. The woman presented in "a woman who loves" is incapable of enforcing the power of her love because she is waiting for male affirmation. Her obliviousness to the feminist power dynamic makes it impossible for her to accept the feminist affirmation that other women offer her. She is estranged from the community of enlightened women who continue to offer their encouragement.

                    her sisters offer their

own breast up, full and
creamy vessels but she
cannot drink because
she loves impossible men (34)

These women have obviously dreamed Eve's dream and are willing to share the knowledge that they have acquired. Their breasts are vessels, which contain the nectar of the sleek sweet apple, which is Eve's heritage to her daughters. Unfortunately the woman remains trapped because she insists on aligning herself with the impossible men.

It is important to note the structure Clifton uses in establishing the female / male order. The loving woman is always presented first which gives her the superior position over the men in the relationship. The woman has the ability to control the relationship but she has not used the power that is constantly attached to her throughout the text. Love is the power but because she has allowed herself to rely on the male representation of her worth she remains powerless. Clifton is able to show the limited progress some women have settled for because this loving woman has the one thing our mothers longed for, a room of her own. The room is useless, however, because she is a voiceless occupant of an unfurnished space. She occupies a room where:

she cannot sing
she drinks good sherry
swallowing around the notes
rusted in her throat. (34)

It appears that her ability to speak has been lost because the notes of her song have been suppressed by an attachment to materialism as represented by the "good sherry." The stupor provided by materialism has effectively kept the loving woman in a position of exclusion.

The major contradiction of the poem is between love and possibility. Love has a connotation of contentment, completeness, and possibility. The love associated with this woman has none of these qualities. Does the woman in this poem really love? It seems improbable that if she has loved these men that they would all remain impossible. She appears to allow herself to be limited by love instead of taking Eve's initiative not just to love but to be loved. True love is reciprocal. It is admirable to love simply for the sake of loving but as human beings we have an intrinsic desire to be loved. It can be assumed that this woman needs to change the object of her love. Her continued quest to love impossible men only causes her to be viewed as unlovable. A society where it is acceptable for males to be impossible will allow women to continually be overwhelmed by their displacement of love. The woman appears blind to the fact that she has the ability to choose to first love herself. This would release her from the fruitless struggle to gain personal acceptance based on beliefs formulated by male opinion.

All is not lost for "a woman who loves" because Clifton has given her a pattern for success in her offering of "eve's version." She provides direction to those women who are locked behind windows and lack the vision necessary to see beyond the view that society has presented to them. The direction affords the possibility of telling their own story from their own unique point of view. Women are also given the responsibility for providing an honest allocation of power in today's richly diverse culture. Lucille Clifton 's quilting bee gathers the feminist dynamic that has been altered and dispersed and reworks it into a garment which makes this powerful force available to all women. These quilts can be displayed to tell the story or they can be used to offer warmth and security.

Work Cited

Clifton, Lucille. quilting poems 1987-1990. Rochester, New York: BOA Editions Ltd., 1991.

Foxes and Light in the Poetry of Lucille Clifton

Amy Sosnowski

Works Cited