Customer Reviews

The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde

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4 star:		(1)
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In my opinion, Audre Lorde is one of the best poets of our time. Her words create vibrant images in the mind, as well as indelibly printing their echoes on the heart. Whether harsh and dark, or light and singing, her verse is incomparable. This book, a collection of her works, can be nothing less than brilliant simply for being exactly what it is. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes poetry -- and even some who don't. Lorde can change your view of the genre if anyone can.

Collecting the work of the incredibly accessible and graceful Lorde, this book gives you not only all of her work in one fell swoop, but one of the best overviews of style and voice that can be found in one poet.

A must-have for poets and an incredible teaching resource.

This book of poetry should be required for life. It is one of the most inspirationational books ever. Audre Lorde's work will live forever through this work and I highly recommend it.

This is an excellent purchase! The edition is beautiful and you've got all the poems of Audre Lorde in one book.

Stars, stars, how many stars to give? Had I reviewed this book several years ago I'd have given 5 stars. In the interim, Corn Meal Dance finally pushed me into checking out Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan for myself. I went crazy for her so for the purposes of reviewing I'm giving that one the edge in stars. Still, there's a reason why I checked this book out from the library so many times over the course of a couple years before finally deciding I needed to own it so I could have these words whenever I needed them.

The reason? Audre Lorde was one of the great poets. She was one of the great people. $13 for THIS? The Collected Poems is almost 500 pages of blinding insight into corners of The American (via the micro... via the personal) Experience too often overlooked. Audre's cup ranneth over when it came to the gifts of wisdom, grace and just the right amount of righteous anger. I don't for a second question the judgement of anyone who gives this 5 stars. My favorite poems here are in the stratosphere. The pantheon.

This isn't just a sampler, though. This is the complete collection of her poetry. I assume some of these volumes were previously out of print for a while. No longer. Inside, you get The First Cities (1968), Cables To Rage (1970), From A Land Where Other People Live (1973), New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), Coal (1976), Between Our Selves (1976), The Black Unicorns (1978), the new poems from Chosen Poems: Old and New (1982), Our Dead Behind Us (1986) and The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance (1993).

Pulling down statues of rock from their high places
we must level the expectation
upon which they stand
waiting for us
to fulfill their image
waiting
for our feet to replace them.

This, the aforementioned June Jordan book, When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist and America, My Brother, My Blood / América, mi hermano, mi sangre: A Latin American Song of Suffering and Resistance (Ocean Sur) (Spanish Edition) are 4 of the best books I've bought in the past few years. I believe they could help most anyone feel more connected in an unforgiving world.

Whether Audre Lorde is communicating about being Afro-American, a woman, a mother, a lesbian, or a survivor of cancer, she never pulls any punches. She definitely is an unsung leader. She accomplished quite a lot in her 58 years. Despite being the poet in resident of New York state, she is little heard of. And that's too bad. Her voice is strong and clear against oppression. May my voice, in my books such as "Forever Retro Blues" be as clear and as strong.