Good News About the Earth

by Lucille Clifton

Hard cover book.

Genres: Poetry

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Lucille Clifton was an American poet, writer, and educator from New York. Common topics in her poetry include the celebration of her African American heritage, and feminist themes, with particular emphasis on the female body.

She was the first person in her family to finish high school and attend college. She started Howard University on scholarship as a drama major but lost the scholarship two years later.

Thus began her writing career.

Good Times, her first book of poems, was published in 1969. She has since been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and has been honored as Maryland's Poet Laureate.

Ms. Clifton's foray into writing for children began with Some of the Days of Everett Anderson, published in 1970.

In 1976, Generations: A Memoir was published. In 2000, she won the National Book Award for Poetry, for her work "Poems Seven".

From 1985 to 1989, Clifton was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland. From 1995 to 1999, she was a visiting professor at Columbia University. In 2006, she was a fellow at Dartmouth College.

Clifton received the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement posthumously, from the Poetry Society of America.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful to be reading Lucille Clifton's collected works. I'd read some of her poems before, but reading them all in light of one another has been incredible - I'd never considered myself a fan of hers, and now I can't get enough. I especially liked "Apology," "The News," and "Easter Sunday" here.

[andré crombie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the bodies broken on
the trail of tears
and the bodies melted
in middle passage
are married to rock and
ocean by now
and the mountains crumbling on
white men
the waters pulling white men down
sing for red dust and black clay
good news about the earth”

[Patch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was supposed to be an optimistic one but old books being optimistic about the future make me sad.

[atito · Rating 4 out of 5]

she's so great

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

While outwardly simple due to the straightforward presentation, consistently short uncapitalized lines, and approachable language, there's so much depth, warmth of feeling, and resonant sorrow locked in these poems. Plain language transfigured through distillation and a keen embrace of ambiguity. Exquisite.

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good News About the Earth is divided into three parts: "About the Earth", "Heroes", and "Some Jesus". All demonstrate the esteemed poet's starkness and profundity.

from "About the Earth"...

only to keep
his little fear
he kills cities
and his trees
even his children oh
people
white ways are
the way of death
come into the
Black
and live
- after Kent State, pg. 1

*

mornings
I got up early
greased my legs
straightened my hair and
walked quietly out
not touching

in the same place
the tree the lot
the poolroom Deacon Moore
everything was stayed

nothing changed
(nothing remained the same)
I walked out quietly
mornings
in the '40s
a nice girl
not touching
trying to be white
- The Way It Was, pg. 3

*

i became a woman
during the old prayers
among the ones who wore
bleaching cream to bed
and all my lessons stayed

i was obedient
but brothers i thank you
for these mannish days

i remember again the wise one
old and telling of suicides
refusing to be slaves

i had forgotten and
brothers i thank you
i praise you
i grieve my whiteful ways
- apology (to the panthers), pg. 6

*

will be the days
I go unchildrened
strange women will walk
out my door and in
hiding my daughters
holding my sons
leaving me nursing on my self
again
having lost some
begun much
- the '70s, pg. 8

*

lighten up

why is Your hand
so heavy
on just poor
me?

Answer

this is the stuff
I made the heroes
out of
all the saints
and prophets and things
had to come by
this
- Prayer, pg. 14

from "Heroes"...

here is where it was dry
when it rained
and also
here
under the same
what was called
tree
it bore varicoloured
flowers children bees
all this used to be a
place once all this
was a nice place
once
- Earth, pg. 17

*

my window
is his wall.
in a crash of
birdpride
he breaks the arrogance
of my definitions
and leaves me grounded
in his suicide.
- for the bird who flew against our window one morning and broke his natural neck, pg. 18

*

nobody mentioned war
but doors were closed
black women shaved their heads
black men rustled in the alleys like leaves
prophets were ambushed as they spoke
and from their holes black eagles flew
screaming through the streets
- Malcolm, pg. 22

*

feel free.
like my daddy
always said
jail wasn't made
for gods,
was made for
men
- to Bobby Seale, pg.

from "Some Jesus"...

I bless the black
skin of the woman
and the black
night turning around her
like a star's bed
and the black
sound of Delilah
across his prayers
for they have made me
wise
- Solomon, pg. 33

*

Job easy
is the pride
of God

Job hard
the pride
of Job

i come to rags
like a good baby
to breakfast
- Job, pg. 34

*

some Jesus
has come on me

I throw my nets
into water he walks

i loose the fish
he feeds to cities

and everybody calls me
an old name

as i follow out
laughing like God's fool
behind this Jesus
- The Calling of the Disciples, pg. 40

[Hollis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me begin by displaying a short poem from the final section of this volume, titled some jesus.

john

"somebody coming in blackness
like a star
and the world be a great bush
on his head
and his eyes be fire
in the city
and his mouth be true as time

he be calling the people brother
even in the prison
even in the jail

i'm just only a baptist preacher
somebody bigger than me coming
in blackness like a star"

The humbleness of the poem's speaker, this Black Baptist preacher announcing something greater than him, approximates the way Clifton herself shies away from direct claims to grandeur. She is but a vessel for something unspeakable. Clifton's craft might be described, at this point, as a spiritual minimalism. I believe the only (or a very rare) capitalization across the volume is reserved for the name of God/Jesus. Most of the poems seem to exist as vignettes or fragments, reminding me of Sappho or Pizarnik. Across the volume, Clifton gently observes relationships between Black men and women ("later i'll say"), the political stress of the late 60s moving into the 70s (the first poem is about the Kent State massacre), all the while maintaining her religious dedication, which culminates in a final section with poems about various Books/Characters from the Old Testament. In general, this volume is moving as a snapshot of a particular moment in the development of Black consciousness, especially a sort of utopic feeling grounded by spiritual faith. I'll end simply, with lines from another favorite:

malcolm

"nobody mentioned war
but doors were closed
black women shaved their heads
black men rustled in the alleys like leaves
prophets were ambushed as they spoke
and from their holes black eagles flew
screaming through the streets"

[P.V. LeForge · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are short, early poems by Clifton, very much into the Black Liberation mode, although subtle. Here are the comparisons between biblical characters (Moses as a slave, Jonah as someone who was taken a prisoner on the water), references to Africa and its flora, white is death and black is life motifs, and the idea of the Black man as strong and heroic (although Black women seem to stay in the background). Pretty lightweight stuff, but with an interesting briefness and a certain theme.

[Sanjuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar in style to her first collection, though, at times, the tone here is more antagonistic, even incendiary, and it made for more anxious reading. Some would say that's a good thing. Favorites here are "The Lost Baby Poem," "Prayer," and "Daddy."

[Ellice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though these weren't necessarily all my favorite poems by Lucille Clifton, it's amazing that this was just her second book of poetry, written over 50 years ago. Her talent was clear even then.

[Grace Wagner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually only ended up reading the first section, because the religious poems were included in another bind-up and did not interest me enough to reread.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible, poignant, and relevant.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

"some jesus" is one of my favorite Lucille sequences. Something about the stripping away of all excess just...really crystallizes what matters in the Christian faith. 3.5 stars