Lucille Clifton (1936–2010)
john
somebody coming in blackness
like a star
and the world be a great bush
on his head
and his eyes be fire
in the city
and his mouth be true as time
he be calling the people brother
even in the prison
even in the jail
i’m just only a baptist preacher
somebody bigger than me coming
in blackness like a star
Lucille Clifton (1936–2010) was an American poet and children's book author whose work garnered many awards. When she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize in 2007, one of the judges said, “One always feels the looming humaneness around Lucille Clifton’s poems—it is a moral quality that some poets have and some don’t.” This poem is from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton (BOA Editions, 1987).
Selected by Amy Frykholm: amy@journeywithjesus.net
