First of all, Lover’s flesh is “warm as sunlight” – welcoming and excited. She is involved, and she is experiencing this together with her perfectly fitted partner. No longer is the lover simply being admired and desired, she is now in it.

By “feel your stomach curve against me,” Audre makes the lover an active participant. I love the idea that her fingers “conceive your flesh,” almost as if it wasn’t fully realized until it was touched, until it was no longer imagination and fantasy, bu something real and right in front of her. And she does this without using saccharine tropes or making it sound hokey or “pure.” A natural extension of their feelings for each other. She allows sex to be not something dirty or shameful, but loving, encouraging, complimentary, and completely natural. The whole “one shared heart” and “two souls intertwined” extends to the flesh here. This whole poem is about her lover being perfectly fitted to her, to the extent that they are extensions of each other. “Out of my flesh that hungers and my mouth that knows comes the shape I am seeking for reason.” That is potentially the most elegant way I have ever heard to say that you are feeling randy. First, she describes her lover as a part of her own self. Ok, that somewhat obvious comment aside, let’s talk about why I decided to make myself blush on the Internet. Just beautiful imagery and words and rhythm to it. I will say only this about the sex itself – as a queer lady, Audre Lorde describes it very well. Like, I’m slightly embarrassed to have other people know I like it so much. I’ll just put this out there: that is a really sexy poem. However, I think it best to limit myself to a few highlights – here’s the first of several posts.įirst selected poem: “On a night of the full moon” from Cables to Rage, 1970 I could pick many, many poems to spotlight, and give in-depth analysis of. I could easily spend 10-15 blog posts on how visceral and visual and REAL her poetry is. Reading her work chronologically, sorted by original published book, helped me follow her progress as a poet and in her various life stages. Seeing the evolution of certain poems was really interesting. This collection is all of her published poetry, including some poems that were edited/rewritten, and re-released. You can (and absolutely should) read an excellent biography and analysis of her themes and impact here. And now that I have read her work, I can’t believe I hadn’t read it before. One of the few Black feminists to achieve a somewhat transcendent recognition of her contribution to the women’s movement, to lesbian rights, to Black women’s identities and activism. One of those names you hear over and over again.

The collected poems of audre lorde