The Solo Book Club-"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf" by Ntosake Shange

If you've been following along in with my Solo Book Club then you have had a chance to enjoy some of the poetry of Lucille Clifton.  I've now decided to move into a re-reading of Ntosake Shange's choreopoem "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf."  Now I know this choreopoem has recently come to more of a broad exposure that it was previous.  And if you watch the video that is linked here under Ntosake's name then you will learn that previously her choreopoem has been handed down from mother or aunt to daughter.  However, in true "solo" fashion, I found this choreopoem in my high school library while looking for a play for my senior monologue.

Of course, at the time, I believed that I understood the major issues of the play.  Of course, at 18, I was wrong and understood nothing.  As most 18 year olds; even the mature ones.

In the past few years I've troubled myself and worried myself that I did not have audition material.  The truth was, I just couldn't find something that fit with my gut enough to carry it around.  As I re-read "For Colored Girls. . . " I'm going to see if again, sits well with my gut.  Who knows, I may finally find the audition piece that sits well with my gut.


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The Solo Book Club- "them and us" by Lucille Clifton

Get familiar with the Solo Book Club .  The poem "them and us" Lucille Clifton says so much about the difference between the black and white american mindset.  The power of fame.  The artists to whom we give our allegiance.  So much commentary  in 15 lines! Recognize!


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The Solo Book Club- "june 20" by Lucille Clifton

Ms. Clifton's poems are utterly amazing.  They seem to fold time and space.  How can she force into our minds so much in so few lines?  Her work is poetic gospel.



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The Solo Book Club- "climbing" by Lucille Clifton

WOW! I just finished the first poem of "The Book of Light"  "climbing" and I am blown away!  I can't believe that so much can be said in so little. I just could not believe the use of words.  So accurate, so precise.  And, the images are exactly what I feel now as a woman in her mid-thirties.  All the maybes, all the "should haves", and I'm still hungry.  But, now I am hungry for a time when I am fed by what I do have and not by what I don't think that I have.  If you can dig that, lemme know.

Blessings!


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The Solo Book Club

So often we start a book alone.  And, even though it is a book obviously found by others previous to ourselves, we are overjoyed, enraptured, and certain that we are the first of at least our circle of friends to REALLY love this book. We clutch at the book, let our fingers become intimate with the folds of its pages and the texture of the cover.  We open ourselves up to the possibility that this book may be a new love.

I know book clubs are popular.  I suggest book clubs to others, but I am horrible at them.  I just don't like to share.  But I'm trying to break myself of that selfish greed.  I've decided to start with a book of poetry by Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) and her book The Book of Light.  I'll keep you posted on the poems I like, the questions I have, the thoughts that are sparked.

If you would like to read the book of poetry as well, You are welcome too.  If you would like to share your thoughts, you are welcome to.  If you would like to leave your comments and share my comments with others, please do.

I'll be back in a bit with my feelings about the first few poems that I've read.


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