Red Clay Suite - Can we discuss it all??

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers did not come to play. They embody all qualities of a wonderful writer, leaving us wanting more. This is a book I could not put down, I wanted to explore it inside and out, looking for 'clues' from Jefferes, cries for help, more answers, and everything in between. It is difficult to write this response because I fear not being able to bring the book to life as much as it did for me. Red Clay Suite is one for the books. 

Jeffers is extremely open in this book, making sure we know the struggle even if some will never understand it. In just the first poem, Jeffers includes 'Red Clay Suite' in every line, each highlighting the next. "red Clay - crave red clay - her red clay - lovely red clay - sight of red clay - epic red clay -grave in red clay - home to red clay." Just go ahead and try to re-read that poem again if you have not noticed that. See how hard it is so un-read that now and let that emphasis on red clay sit in. 

Often, we feel that Jeffers is lost, conflicted. Do they dig into a side they feel they cannot proclaim? "I have no proof that I'm a eal Cherokee, so maybe I need to forget a woman who lied or hid or got lost." This line interupts a right of passage for Jeffers, where is their red clay?

There is not just one or two poems we can discuss in this book, it would be interesting for each of us to delvge into a poem one at a time. If that was the case, I would be conflicted between choosing "Eatonton (Two)" or "The Blues I Don't Want to Remember." I appreciated reading "The Blues I Don't Want to Remember," because it explores more on the relationship between their mother and father, whereas we get small glimpses throughout the book or maybe poems focused on just one and not both. 

Without a doubt, "Hawk Hoof Tea" is one of the many that lingered in my mind for some time. I was desperate to read more because of this particular poem, or else I would not have lost time. This poem made me feel that Jeffers was begging for help, pleading almost, in the hidden beautiful words of poetry. Even after the mother lost her eye to a butcher, Jeffers represents this as a lesson, "how, if a family had not been poor and black, a woman would be able to see on both sides of her face." And Yet again, where is that red clay?