"why some people be mad at me sometimes," by Lucille Clifton

why some people be mad at me sometimes

they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories
and i keep on remembering
mine.

+ Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) was one of the twentieth century’s most prominent African-American poets, and her often brief, spare poems are packed with power and intimacy. She once remarked that “writing is a way of continuing to hope,” and that “perhaps for me it is a way of remembering I am not alone.”

On this first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, and on the eve of the hundredth anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, this poem is at once a call to remember and a caution that what, who, and how we remember makes a world of difference. So much has changed in a year, and in a century; and so much remains the same. Remembering can be a form of passivity — and it can be a form of action. It can be a form of lip-service — and it can be a form of rededication. It can be a form of “going along” with what the powers-that-be want us to remember — and it can be a form of fiercely insisting that a new world is possible.

And speaking of possibility, here’s another short, powerful poem from Clifton:

Spring Song

the green of Jesus
is breaking the ground
and the sweet
smell of delicious Jesus
is opening the house and
the dance of Jesus music
has hold of the air and
the world is turning
in the body of Jesus and
the future is possible