Audre Lorde was an African American writer and she defines herself as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, and poet”. Audre Lorde is best known for expressing her anger and outrage at civil rights and social injustices she observed through poems. Her poems mostly dealt with issues relating civil rights, feminism, and the exploration of black identity. In her last years, Audre Lorde battled cancer for fourteen years. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978 and six years later, she was diagnosed with liver cancer.
Audre Lorde’s poem “Coal” reflects her relationship with society and herself. This poem is written in free-verse, Lorde is not using strict traditional form or meter, allowing her to create her own system for the unique needs of her poem. This poem discusses that there are different kinds of words to be spoken and describes how the speaker feels about her own identity through an ongoing metaphor of words. She uses rich imagery throughout her poem to describe how some words are easy
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This is another line in which the speaker conveys two meanings. In conjunction with the previous lines, she seems to be insinuating that “love” is one of the words that bedevils her. Although she states that it is “another kind of open,” she is really saying that it is not. This is shown through the use of punctuation. In the previous stanzas, there has not been a period after the word “open;” yet there is a period here after the statement about love. Society claims that love is open, but the speaker – perhaps in relation to Audre Lorde’s own sexuality – feels that society’s idea of love is not truly open to her. She concludes her poem by unifying the “I…” (35) (her being an individual) and “am Black” (35) (her whole), thus she is emphasizing the fact that being black is part who she is. Thus, she is telling the reader, “take my word for jewel/ in the open light.” (37-38), which is basically telling us to accept her for who she