Clifton's Forgiving My Father

The poem “Forgiving my Father” reflects how the speaker feels emotional pain from the absence of her father. She uses great imagery and metaphors in her poem to help the readers understand the resentment and frustration Clifton is feeling. It reminds me of my childhood in which my father was absent from my life and I felt so much anger and confusion. The speaker holds the father accountable for his needy actions but learns how to forgive him. The speaker talks about recollections from her father. This text emphasizes how the abandonment of a parent can affect a child growing up. “Daddy old pauper old prisoner, old dead man” (line 20). Clifton is describing her old man as dead because his efforts towards parenting are as good as dead.

Towards the end of Clifton's poem, “What am I doing here collecting? You lie side by side in debtor’s boxes and no accounting will open them up”

(lines 21-23). He will never change his selfish ways and it takes time to forgive someone for that great deal of pain they caused you. It’s hard to feel like they don’t owe you something because I still feel like my dad owes me years of my life I can’t get back.

Clifton described her childhood and her father being in and out of her life, she left the lines that question forgiveness about her father. She questions why she still thinks about her father when there’s not a day that goes by where he’s thinking about it. Clifton felt physiological distress from her father’s abusive habits. She uses the comparison of money instability and monetary debt to symbolize a debt of love and affection. I felt the same effects from my father’s abusive habits. I began to question why my mother had to go through this pain and why he would do something so cruel to her. I felt like my dad still owed me something after he apologized to me. “You gave her all you had, which was nothing. You have already given her

I started managing my emotions better, and I wanted a better future for myself rather than following in the footsteps of my father. These memories are powerful in my life because they affect the way I view the world. I had a different perspective on people and always put my guard up. I noticed one of my behavioral patterns from the absence of my father is that I tend to try to cut off my relationships with friends or family before they hurt me first. In

“Forgiving my Father” Clifton says, “all week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost, asking for more time” (lines 3-4). The speaker is haunted by the idea of unpaid debts from the lack of care she got. How can someone repay debts and ask for more time to fix things if they’re a ghost? She grows worried over this thought of her father. This stirs up a memory from my childhood when I would question the next time I ever got to see my father again. I questioned when he would show up again and thought of every memory with him, the good and bad ones. I thought of how much time I would have left with him and that there was so much that I needed to discuss with him. I would worry about what I would say to him when I saw him next. I