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The First Cities
Audre Lorde's first volume of poetry
- GenresPoetry
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Audre Lorde
90 books4,591 followersAudre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone."
Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.
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Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of colour. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 3, 2017
I'm actually reading The Collected Poems, which includes all of Lorde's books of poetry in order of publication, but as others have said they liked some books more than others, I figured I'd review each one on its own.
So, before now I'd read Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, but never any of her poems. Since I love Lorde's prose so much though, I decided to just jump right into the deep end, even though generally poetry is a hard sell for me. I'm glad that I read her prose first, especially Zami, because I'm not sure how much I'd have gotten out of the poems without knowing some of the background behind them. At any rate, I think I'm definitely appreciating it much more knowing that background than I would have otherwise.
While not all of the poems in this first collection of hers resonated with me, surprisingly more did than not, and I once again found myself kind of in awe of Lorde--there's something so evocative in the way she wrote, and I'm happy to find myself just as sucked into her poetry as her prose.
Favorites in this book: Memorial II; Coal; Bridge Through My Windows; Second Spring; Gemini; Oaxaca; Father, the Year is Fallen; If You Come Softly; Return.
And because one time I told a friend that all reviews of poetry should have actual poems in them, I'll include a short one:
Father, the Year is Fallen
Father, the year is fallen.
Leaves bedeck my careful flesh like stone.
One shard of brilliant summer pierced me
And remains.
By this only--unregenerate bone
I am not dead, but waiting.
When last warmth is gone
I shall bear in the snow.
So, before now I'd read Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, but never any of her poems. Since I love Lorde's prose so much though, I decided to just jump right into the deep end, even though generally poetry is a hard sell for me. I'm glad that I read her prose first, especially Zami, because I'm not sure how much I'd have gotten out of the poems without knowing some of the background behind them. At any rate, I think I'm definitely appreciating it much more knowing that background than I would have otherwise.
While not all of the poems in this first collection of hers resonated with me, surprisingly more did than not, and I once again found myself kind of in awe of Lorde--there's something so evocative in the way she wrote, and I'm happy to find myself just as sucked into her poetry as her prose.
Favorites in this book: Memorial II; Coal; Bridge Through My Windows; Second Spring; Gemini; Oaxaca; Father, the Year is Fallen; If You Come Softly; Return.
And because one time I told a friend that all reviews of poetry should have actual poems in them, I'll include a short one:
Father, the Year is Fallen
Father, the year is fallen.
Leaves bedeck my careful flesh like stone.
One shard of brilliant summer pierced me
And remains.
By this only--unregenerate bone
I am not dead, but waiting.
When last warmth is gone
I shall bear in the snow.
July 1, 2020
I’m actually reading her Collected Works, but considering each collection as a whole. This is her first collection, and it contains some that are astoundingly beautiful and evocative.
My favorites from this collection:
Coal
What My Child Learns of the Sea
Bridge Through My Windows
To A Girl Who Knew What Side Her Bread Was Buttered On
Pirouette
Generation
Her rhythm is glorious, especially in To a Girl. Many of her poems about children evoke imagery that brought me to tears. Lorde is a master word smith!
My favorites from this collection:
Coal
What My Child Learns of the Sea
Bridge Through My Windows
To A Girl Who Knew What Side Her Bread Was Buttered On
Pirouette
Generation
Her rhythm is glorious, especially in To a Girl. Many of her poems about children evoke imagery that brought me to tears. Lorde is a master word smith!
November 14, 2022
I don't know how to review poetry so here's one of my favorite poems from this collection.
To a girl who knew what side her bread was buttered on
He, through the eyes of the first marauder
saw her, his catch of bright thunder, heaping
tea and bread for her guardian dead
crunching the nut-dry words they said
and, thinking the bones were sleeping.
he broke through the muffled afternoon
calling an end to their ritual's tune
with lightning-like disorder:
'Leave these bones, Love! Come away
from their summer breads with the flavour of hay—
your guards can watch the shards of our catch
warming our bones on some winter's day!'
Like an ocean of straws the old bones rose up
Fearing his threat of a second death;
and he had little time to wonder
at the silence of bright thunder
as, with a smile of pity and stealth,
she buttered fresh scones for her guardian bones
and they trampled him into the earth.
To a girl who knew what side her bread was buttered on
He, through the eyes of the first marauder
saw her, his catch of bright thunder, heaping
tea and bread for her guardian dead
crunching the nut-dry words they said
and, thinking the bones were sleeping.
he broke through the muffled afternoon
calling an end to their ritual's tune
with lightning-like disorder:
'Leave these bones, Love! Come away
from their summer breads with the flavour of hay—
your guards can watch the shards of our catch
warming our bones on some winter's day!'
Like an ocean of straws the old bones rose up
Fearing his threat of a second death;
and he had little time to wonder
at the silence of bright thunder
as, with a smile of pity and stealth,
she buttered fresh scones for her guardian bones
and they trampled him into the earth.
January 8, 2021
"You did not clock the falling of the leaves
The silent turning of the grass
Nor see brief bright November
Rising out of the hills.
You came
When the sun was set and the bough bent
To find the curtness of winter
The completed act.
You may well say, but with little right
"I never trusted autumn"
Who never sought the root
Of sharp October sorrel
And flame red trees
Or knew the wise and final peace
Red-browning autumn brought
To one whom you loved, and left
To face the dark alone."
The silent turning of the grass
Nor see brief bright November
Rising out of the hills.
You came
When the sun was set and the bough bent
To find the curtness of winter
The completed act.
You may well say, but with little right
"I never trusted autumn"
Who never sought the root
Of sharp October sorrel
And flame red trees
Or knew the wise and final peace
Red-browning autumn brought
To one whom you loved, and left
To face the dark alone."
May 3, 2019
Audre Lorde was very talented, she knew how to use words perfectly. Her poems made me feel lots of things. That's what makes great poetry in my opinion.
June 15, 2020
Audre Lorde Community Seminar Reading #4
July 29, 2022
I first read Lorde in the context of college coursework and Uses of the Erotic (1978). I wondered what it could look like to read these authors outside of the classroom and the realm of theorizing their words.. I am so happy I started with The First Cities (1968). There are ways I will never fully understand Lorde’s words, based on my own positionality, but what I read, I find myself reading over and over again with new interpretations and understanding. I found myself sitting after each poem, even the shorter ones, digesting it and absorbing her words, in ways that speak to the unmatched power with which Audre Lorde writes.
I am nowhere near an expert on prose, but this collection invoked so many feelings in me. Sitting in the sun, visiting my hometown in the South, at this particular time in my life wherein I feel the universe pushing me to make big life changes, I needed Lorde’s poetry in this moment more than I thought, and I am so grateful for her.
I am nowhere near an expert on prose, but this collection invoked so many feelings in me. Sitting in the sun, visiting my hometown in the South, at this particular time in my life wherein I feel the universe pushing me to make big life changes, I needed Lorde’s poetry in this moment more than I thought, and I am so grateful for her.
October 28, 2021
Whilst I may have not loved this just as much as "The Black Unicorn", Lorde is still able to show her incredible talent and art, even in her first poetry collection.
My favorites in this were:
Memorial II
Generation
Suffer the Children
My favorites in this were:
Memorial II
Generation
Suffer the Children
January 4, 2024
Her poems, despite being rather short, conjure a really strong, beautiful mental image.
Even when I didn't full understand what the poem "means", it was lovely to be able to see what she was describing
Even when I didn't full understand what the poem "means", it was lovely to be able to see what she was describing
March 20, 2021
i have no idea how to read poetry books so it was very overwhelming but i got the sense that it was good and important and made me feel bad about how shoddy my own rupi kauresque poetry is
May 24, 2021
I need to reread this
June 6, 2021
“But lightning comes.” For that poem alone, this collection earns its place. I can’t quite put into words how much she means to me right now.
July 20, 2021
Favorite was 'If You Come Softly'
December 5, 2021
I read this from the collected poems, this was her first collection.
January 24, 2022
my personal favourites: "coal", "generation", "father, the year is fallen"
February 23, 2017
Deserves a solid 4.5. Love the repeated use of autumn and thunderstorms.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews