I was familiar with Audre Lorde as a poet but I'd never read any of her work. Until now. Coal is a fine read. There is good poetry throughout.

The collection was first published in 1976 and was Lorde's first collection published by a major publisher. There are five parts.

Section I features poems of a variety of topics, including the titular "Coal". Part II is mainly about childhood and children, but not entirely. Part III seems to be about the experience of being a partner, a lover and a mother. Part IV is one superb long poem "Martha". "Martha" is one of my favourite pieces of writing in the whole book. It is a poem about the survival and recovery of a friend of Lorde's after a car accident. Part V is a series of poems about loss, grief and remembrance. Typically I found this to be my favourite part of the collection:

"If you come as softly
as wind within the trees
you may hear what I hear
see what sorrow sees."
from Memorial I

One of the poems in Part V, "Anniversary", made me think of "Sometimes It Snows in April". A part of me even wonders if Lorde's poem was in Prince's mind when he wrote the song. But perhaps, as the Eighth Doctor once said, I am a "typical human. Always seeing patterns where there are none."

"But April came today.
though spring comes ever
even in the empty years
since you have slept
it was in April
that you chose to sever
young love and self
and I remembered
and I wept."
from Anniversary

Lorde writes neatly about the personal and the political. Here, perhaps, are poems that exemplify that saying "the personal is political".

This was an excellent introduction to Lorde's work. I have a book of her essays and her memoir to read but I'd like to read more of her poetry too.