For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.”
Poetry Is Not a Luxury (1985) Audre Lorde
In this passage, Audre Lorde makes a distinction between the poetry of white men and the poetry of non-european women. She explains that for women, specifically black women, poetry is a necessity. It is through poetry that women can focus on and express their feelings. Lorde explains that poetry allows women to feel powerful, recognize that their dreams are not incomprehensible, and make their visions a reality. I took this to mean that poetry is a place where people can share their feeling and desires when it is not safe to do so in the environment around them
I believe that Lorde was sharing the experiences of many minorities, and that minority groups are the intended audience of this passage. It appears to me that she is trying to community to women why they must utilize poetry. In the quote above, she is explaining that poetry is vital for survival and to induce change, and Lorde also writes: “If what we need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly toward and through promise, is a luxury, then we have given up the core-the fountain-of our power, our womanness; we have give up the future of our worlds.” Through these two quotes, which are my keys, and the use of words such as “we” and “our,” I infer that Lorde is telling women that poetry must be preserved for the identity and power of present and future women.
My lock is at the end of the text, where Lorde writes that there are no new ideas, only new ways of making them felt. I recognize that there are many new ideas that people try and present as new and revolutionary. However I am confused because I would have through there are new ideas as well.