Black Brilliance

Audre Lorde’s “Coal” is a perfect metaphor for the beauty and pride of African-Americans and the Black Arts Movement. This is (again) my favorite type of poem, wherein the title word is not mentioned at all in the poem, but immediately sets it off in a particular direction. By simply using the title “Coal,” Lorde uses one of earth’s most precious resources, and its “blackness,” as an evolving metaphor for the brilliance and creativity of African-Americans.

In the first stanza, the coal, or blackness, is “…spoken / from the earth’s inside” and, once out into the open and put through flame, “becomes” a diamond. Diamonds then become the new metaphor throughout the poem. This expression of something so naturally black that becomes perfectly clear yet infinitely “colored” is pure genius.

Diamonds then become words, which is the metaphor that fills the second stanza. Words can either sing out easily, or they come at a cost. This is illustrated by another brilliant metaphor, whereby Lorde describes the words as “stapled wagers / in a perforated book – buy and sign and tear apart- / …an ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.” Words get stuck in the poet’s throat, but then they can escape, or “explode through my lips / like young sparrows bursting from shell.” With this, the poem is literally layered with metaphors that describe the poet’s process of expression. Her colorful words and sounds are finally out in the open, but this requires a rigorous process, just like the creation of diamonds from coal deep inside the earth.

In the third and final stanza, “Love is a word.” The coal has evolved from blackness to diamonds to words to love. Lorde proudly exclaims that “I am Black because I come from the earth’s inside / now take my word for jewel in the open light.” This ending of brightness and purity is a metaphor for the positive worth of the poet’s creation. She and her poems are an expensive perfection.