‘come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.’
Lucille Clifton’s poems are celebrated for being compact and self-sufficient. A Pulitzer Prize nominee, her poems are noted for avoiding capital letters and strict punctuation. This poem of fourteen lines was first published in her collection ‘The Book of Light’. The poem calls for a celebration of survival. Each day is a struggle for the persona, but every day is overcome with grit.
‘won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model’
The persona assumes the role of a sculptor who has shaped herself into “a kind of life”. The phrase implies that the life lived by her is not one of perennial pleasure, but one which has been made possible after fierce battles which rage every day. ‘i had no model’ suggests the absence of patrons in her life. She was pure dust rising up, all by herself.
‘born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman’
‘born in babylon’ is a direct allusion to Psalm 137, which begins: ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Babylon, for the Israelites, was a land of oppression. The persona asserts her identity when she claims herself as ‘nonwhite’ and ‘woman’.
Clifton’s poems rejuvenate black culture. In poems like ‘Homage to My Hips’ and ‘Homage to My Hair’ Clifton celebrated the black female body at a time when Western beauty standards negated it. Here in this poem, she asserts that she sculpted her own identity-
‘what did i see to be except myself?
‘i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand is holding tight
my other hand;’
Between the mundane and the extraordinary, the persona stands tall. Her one hand holds tight the other hand. The lines show the portrait of an independent black woman who fought the battles all alone and was victorious.
‘come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to
kill me
and has failed’
For those who are afflicted by war, surviving each day is the bravest act ever. For many who are oppressed in ways beyond imagination, breathing every day is an act of endurance. Behind many smiling faces around us are hearts which fight dark nights of their souls. Clifton’s poem encourages us to celebrate every single day of our lives. Our battles may be different, but we are united by our efforts to live one day at a time.
The writer is a poet, translator and assistant professor of English at BCM College, Kottayam