Can somebody please help me???!!! dont understand "coal" poem?

Question

i have to read the poem "coal" by audre lorde for my english class and write a power essay on it but i dont understand it can somebody please tell me whats its about?? its due by 8 o'clock tonight!

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Coal
by Audre Lorde

I
is the total black, being spoken
from the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open
how a diamond comes into a knot of flame
how sound comes into a word, colored
by who pays what for speaking.

Some words are open like a diamond
on glass windows
singing out within the passing crash of sun
Then there are words like stapled wagers
in a perforated book--buy and sign and tear apart--
and come whatever wills all chances
the stub remains
an ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
breeding like adders. Others know sun
seeking like gypsies over my tongue
to explode through my lips
like young sparrows bursting from shell.
Some words
bedevil me.

Love is a word, another kind of open.
As the diamond comes into a knot of flame
I am Black because I come from the earth's inside
now take my word for jewel in the open light.

Source(s):

Audre Lorde is a very cool person; an early activist for gay rights. Her poetry is powerful and provocative. In "Coal," she is comparing raw beauty to a polished lustre.

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Asker's Comment:

wasnt very helpfull but u were the only one thx