Lucille Clifton was an African American writer who was known for writing about fighting through feminism and racism. She believed in fighting for what you believed in and holding yourself to a high standard and not failing. She creates a large message out of little words, she doesn't use correct punctuation or structure, which adds to the matter-of-fact way that she writes. She leaves a lasting impression on the reader.
In this poem she talks about a dream she had where she was criticizing herself on the life she had led and how she could be doing better. It reminded me of the Christmas story where the ghosts come back to tell Scrooge what he had done wrong in his past and how it will affect him in the future. She uses figurative language to describe how she looked like "with her extra finger whirling in a gyre of rage" and "sparked her wild eyes." It was one of those self realization moments where she was looking back on her life and realized she hadn't really done anything significant or important and wantd to change but didn't know if it was too late or not.
I liked this poem because I feel like we all have these thoughts and need to think about what we can do that's actually important before it becomes too late.
Interesting connection to Dickens. I agree with you: "I liked this poem because I feel like we all have these thoughts and need to think about what we can do that's actually important before it becomes too late."
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