mourning lucille clifton

less than a day after learning of poet lucille clifton's death, a news report flashes across my television that henry louis gates has donated the handcuffs from his arrest to the smithsonian.

over the last several months, i've been away from this blog due to the demands of work and simply trying to keep my head above water as i've tried to survive a tide of conservative backlash against president obama with its assurances that he has been a do nothing irrelevant president. quite odd from folks who have consistently stonewalled any efforts at bipartisanship and have consistently acted as if he was not duly elected. it fails to recognize the over 90 actions he has taken--some small and many quite significant--since taking office a little over a year ago. no, i've not always been pleased with all of them, but obama is a far cry from previous presidents who slept their way through office or let others actually run the government for them.

and then there is the disturbing case of the baptist missionaries who have been charged with kidnapping haitian children after the earthquake. when coupled with the ahistorical and inane remarks of pat robertson (who always seems to have something outrageous to say just at the moment when no one is paying him any attention) that the people of haiti made a pact with the devil that prompted the earthquake, the tragedy in haiti grows and stains our hands. robertson's "analysis" is classic historical revisionism wrapped in ignorance about actual historical fact. it also absolves the united states and some european nations from their role of systematically boycotting haiti when it won it's independence in 1804. a systematically crippled infrastructure and decades of economic sanctions and a near 20 year u.s. occupation of the country are important factors in the poor building construction that exacerbated the effects of the earthquake. we have a troubling habit of blaming nature or god when human (il)design exacerbates natural events.

on another front, many of us are shaken by the murder of three tenured biology professors by a colleague who was denied tenure. it's too early to know the whys of the killer's actions, but i am left deeply troubled by the images of the deceased and the alleged killer and the possible role that class, geography, and race may have played in a tenure decision and a colleague's deadly reaction.

we have lucille clifton's words to help us through these times. i will, however, miss her voice reading her words. she was here at yale a year or so ago. elizabeth alexander had the great foresight to bring her back for what was her last reading here. we knew her health was failing, but her voice was strong and her mind was clear as she read and talked with us that night. afterward at dinner, she delighted us with stories of life and living and listened closely at our talk talk as well. it was a wonderful evening with words and laughter and good food and drink. it is her voice that lingers with me from that evening and the times i've heard her read her poetry. i am glad to have that voice to turn to when i leaf though her poetry collections and linger over a favorite poem or my eye catches on one of her marvelous turn of phrases.

those handcuffs in the smithsonian do nothing for me.