Coal

by Audre Lorde
p. 402

I really enjoy reading this poem, and it's a fantastic example of having amazing language and great triggering and actual subjects. The first line is very striking, as it is a single word, a single pronoun, a single letter: "I." This immediately caught my attention, and I like it because in a way it makes anybody reading this poem the speaker. Then, right away she uses "is" to start the second line. This catches the reader because it's grammatically incorrect, and it makes the reader think why she chose to use incorrect grammer. And still, it is understood what she means and where she is going with the next line. Lorde continues with the great use of language as she builds upon the triggering subject, the metaphor of being coal, and the simile of words being like diamonds. The similes and images she uses make this poem very beautiful. This is a very strong poem, a love poem of her affection towards her African peoples and culture, displaying her pride and joy to be a black woman, to go from being a piece of coal to becoming a diamond.