On "homage to my hips" by Lucille Clifton
homage to my hips
these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!
– Lucille Clifton
Source: Good Woman (BOA Editions Ltd., 1987)
Talk about a sexy poem, a poem so deliciously in the body—specifically, in the Black & female body. Fuck yes. & yeayea I hear you: talkin about bodies in poetry is basically cliche now, but Clifton did it before it was hip & she did it cuz talking about bodies in poetry turns reading (totally cerebral/ 4 unsexy couch potatoes only) into something that makes you aware of yourself, like, not your mind but your hips. Ya dig? And, especially for Black female poets like Clifton, Black bodies, insisting-on-their-beauty bodies, free “never been enslaved” bodies were/are unsung and, yep, were/are political. See how the speaker is claiming and celebrating taking up space? See how the speaker is celebrating her “free[dom]”, including her sexual power over dudes? One last poetic note: the repetition of “hips” makes this poem sway and sing, as does the lack of punctuation and capitalization (something Clifton was known for). The short lines ask your eyes to sway across the page. Like you’re watching the speaker walk down the street. Lucky us for getting to share in this empowering sass n joy.
Watch Lucille Clifton be a general badass and read this poem here.
Want more poems that celebrate Black ladies & their lady parts? Read “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou.