Poetry highlights in honor of National Poetry Month!
Poet of the Day: Lucille Clifton

Since 1970, when Langston Hughes published her poems in his anthology The Poetry of the Negro , Lucille Clifton has captivated readers. Her first book of poems,  Good Times  (Random House, 1969), was rated one of the best books of the year by The New York Times . Three of her books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1984 and the National Book Award in 2000 . In 1999, she was elected a  Chancellor  of the Academy of American Poets. She served as Poet Laureate for the State of Maryland from 1979 to 1985 and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She passed away in 2010 at 73.
This poet belongs in our classrooms because…
she uses simple language to express layered themes. Many of her poems center around women and race and may be most age-appropriate for high school, but her children's book series with the character Everett Anderson is popular with elementary students.
Hear Lucille Clifton Read Her Poems
Activities with Lucille Clifton's Poems
Clifton often uses vivid imagery. Sketch one of the following poems and write a caption explaining it.


Sorrows  

Clifton often alludes to historical events or religious figures. Research the allusions in these poems and explain their effects in the poems. "




Shervette Miller-Payton, a literacy coordinator and doctoral student in Georgia, first fell in love with Lucille Clifton's poetry while reading The Book of Light . She can be reached on Twitter at  @shervettemiller .