Mirror mirror on the wall..

It was a dream

Lucille Clifton

in which my greater self

rose up before me

accusing me of my life

with her extra finger

whirling in a gyre of rage

at what my days had come to.

what,

i pleaded with her, could i do,

oh what could I have done?

and she twisted her wild hair

and sparked her wild eyes

and screamed as long as

i could hear her

This.  This.  This.

Lucille Clifton lived her life for her poetry, she was awarded countless prizes and in 1999 became the chancellor of the academy of American poets, unfortunately in 2010 Clifton passed away to the killer disease- cancer. The reason I feel this background knowledge is essential, is that upon reading ABOUT the writer, I understoof more fully the meaning as the reader.

The title of the poem was merely a first line of the poem itself, without the title the readers would be completely lost. The other interesting observation about the poem is that she did not separate the lines into separate couplets or stanzas, she just kept it in one neat and tidy stanza. Her reasoning could have been that she feels that the poem will explain itself, there's no need for extra detail or fluffiness, the poem will work better under the readers interpretation.

I am pretty sure that everyone has had those moments with their parents when one lecture seems to ultimately become their day job, or the fact that you refuse to make your bed turns into- " you're always late to class, you aren't focused enough, you can't take things seriously..."
At then end of the poem what Clifton is trying to emphasize our own ability to do that to ourselves, " This doesn't look right, this can't be helpful, this is merely a waste of time."
We need to reflect upon ourselves but not in a negative way, there is a way to look at things with the glass half full and I think that Clifton was taking a round about way at looking at that.

The beauty in a poet is there sense of understanding that they will have to leave it up to the reader to think for themselves, and not let a mirror do it for you.