Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Ralph J. Mills, Jr.

Critical Essay by Ralph J. Mills, Jr.

SOURCE: A review of Good News about the Earth, in Poetry, Vol. 122, No. 2, May, 1973, pp. 107-08.

In the following review of Good News about the Earth, Mills discusses Clifton's work as a poetry of reality and of affirmation.

Those who found Lucille Clifton's Good Times an amazing volume marking the discovery of one of the best new black poets will surely not be disappointed by Good News about the Earth, which she has divided into three sections: "About the Earth," "Heroes," and "Some Jesus," the latter consisting of poems on Old and New Testament themes, beginning with Adam and Eve and concluding in a "Spring Song" which follows some Easter pieces:

the green of Jesus
is breaking the ground
and the sweet
smell of delicious Jesus
is opening the house and
the dance of Jesus music
has hold of the air and
the world is turning
in the body of Jesus and
the future is...
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