Title: 
Headings: 
Poetry
 
Is
 
Not
 
a
 
Luxury
  
(1985)
Audre
 
Lorde

Content: Poetry
 
is
 
not
 
only
 
dream
 
or
 
vision,
 
it
 
is
 
the
 
skeleton
 
architecture
 
of
 
our
 
lives. Possibility
 
is
 
neither
 
forever
 
nor
 
instant. It
 
is
 
also
 
not
 
easy
 
to
 
sustain
 
belief
 
in
 
its
 
efficacy. We
 
can
 
sometimes
 
work
 
long
 
and
 
hard
 
to
 
establish
 
one
 
beachhead
 
of
 
real
 
resistance
 
to
 
the
 
deaths
 
we
 
are
 
expected
 
to
 
live,
 
only
 
to
 
have
 
that
 
beachhead
 
assaulted
 
or
 
threatened
 
by
 
canards
 
we
 
have
   
been
  
socialized
  
to
  
fear,
   
or
  
by
  
the
   
withdrawal
   
of
  
those
   
approvals
  
that
   
we
   
have
   
been
 
warned
 
to
 
seek
 
for
 
safety. We
 
see
  
ourselves
 
diminished
 
or
 
softened
 
by
 
the
 
falsely
 
benign
 
accusations
 
of
 
childishness,
 
of
 
non-universality,
 
of
 
self-centeredness,
 
of
 
sensuality. And
 
who
 
asks
 
the
 
question: am
 
I
 
altering
 
your
 
aura,
 
your
 
ideas,
 
your
 
dreams,
 
or
 
am
 
I
 
merely
 
moving
 
you
 
to
 
temporary
 
and
 
reactive
 
action? (Even
 
the
 
latter
 
is
 
no
 
mean
 
task,
 
but
 
one
 
that
 
must
 
be
 
rather
 
seen
 
within
 
the
 
context
 
of
 
a
 
true
 
alteration
 
of
 
the
 
texture
 
of
 
our
 
lives.) The
 
white
 
fathers
 
told
 
us,
 
I
 
think
 
therefore
 
I
 
am; and
 
the
 
black
 
mothers
 
in
 
each
 
of
 
us-the
 
poet-
whispers
 
in
 
our
 
dreams,
 
I
 
feel
 
therefore
 
I
 
can
 
be
 
free.