Audre on Poetry

The title of Audre Lorde's essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury" implies that there is an argument over the issue and that many see poetry as a luxury. She makes clear what she believes the power of poetry is in her opening sentence: "The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives" (307). She cites poetry as a form of this light, as an illumination that gives a name to ideas we have but that are nameless and formless until poetry brings them into focus. She thus uses the term poetry to mean more than the usual arrangement of words on a page and instead uses it to refer to the essence of a woman's inner life, a life that gives rise to written poetry but that can also

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