won’t you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton
won’t you celebrate with me
Lucille Cliftonwon’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
SELECTED BY AYOKUNLE FALOMO
Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” is a poem I have talked extensively about and will, as long as I live, never tire of talking about. I love it for the obvious reasons: that is an anthem of celebration in the face of what has tried and daily tries to put an end to one’s existence; that while it is true the speaker of the poem “had no model,” the poem itself is a model of what it means to live—or rather what it means to choose to live, to shape one’s aliveness—in spite of the materials afforded one.
I love it, too, for how it is a model of lyric compression. What better poet to learn all these from than one who is “both nonwhite and woman”! Clifton does in fourteen short lines what many poets, me included, attempt to do over the course of their lifetime, book after book.
This is why it’s one of the epigraphs for my recent collection, Autobiomythography of, and quite frankly, the invisible epigraph for every poem I’ve ever written and will write before something eventually succeeds in killing me, as it will. Until then, come celebrate with me as I make another attempt at writing a poem that can encapsulate that feeling of being resolutely alive.
ABOUT AYOKUNLE FALOMO
Ayokunle Falomo is Nigerian, American, and the author of Autobiomythography of (Alice James Books, 2024), AFRICANAMERICAN’T (FlowerSong Press, 2022), two self-published collections, and African, American (New Delta Review, 2019). A recipient of fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, MacDowell, and the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where he obtained his MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry, his work has been anthologized and widely published.
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SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Book of Light by Lucille Clifton, published by Copper Canyon Press, 1993. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York in 1936, and educated at the State University of New York at Fredonia and at Howard University. Her awards include the Juniper Prize for Poetry, two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, an Emmy Award from the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz and American University in Washington, D.C. and is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Marys College of Maryland.
“In the extraordinary work of The Book of Light she [Clifton] flies higher and strikes deeper than ever. Poem after poem exhilarates and inspires awe at the manifestation of such artistic and spiritual power…One of the most authentic and profound living American poets.”—Denise Levertov
“Clifton’s latest collection clearly demonstrates why she was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. These poems contain all the simplicity and grace readers have come to expect from her work.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)” (Source)
ABOUT LUCILLE CLIFTON
Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York, on June 27, 1936. 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. Clifton’s honors include an Emmy Award from the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, a Lannan Literary Award, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shelley Memorial Award, the YM-YWHA Poetry Center Discovery Award, and the 2007 Ruth Lilly Prize. Lucille Clifton died… (more)
Read more poems by Lucille Clifton • Find books by this poet on Amazon • Bookshop • Or view my library
ENDNOTES
- This is Day 62 of Poems We Carry, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Read A Little Poetry—a living archive I’ve nurtured for two decades. For this milestone series, I invited writers I deeply admire to share poems that have meant something to them over time.
- Explore other works in pursuit of: identity • strength • survival • Or browse the index
- If this work resonates with you, please consider supporting the archive. Thank you for reading.
