Finding Light in Audre Lorde's Coal

Audre Lorde organized Coal  into five separate sections. Each section emphasizes an aspect of race and gender, which Lorde's poem “Coal” demonstrates. The book as a whole carries Audre Lorde's perspective and experience as a black lesbian as she works for political equality. 

Part one begins in the young years of life and introduces the idea of separation because of race as well as establishing the poet's voice. Lorde's poetry provides the imagery for an understanding of the context of the book. “A Family Resemblance” works to mention similarities between the poet and others around her grounding her in a sense of belonging and acceptance. According to Beverly Threatt Kulii, author of The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, “Many of her [Lorde's] poems in Coal are also an indictment of an unjust society that allows women to be treated unfairly, sometimes brutally, and this acknowledgment by Lorde intensifies her plea for cooperation and sisterhood among women,” (Kulii). Upon seeing this acceptance, the reader now has something to compare later poems to, in which Lorde gives stark examples of differences. In “Father Son and Holy Ghost,” the poet speaks directly to the audience giving a story of how she never knew her father but still sought after that father role model. She makes a note to say that her father was judgmental, giving the base that that is where she learned her need for acceptance. Lorde states, “He lived still judgments on familiar things and died,” in “Father Son and Holy Ghost.” Lorde captured the perspective of the speaker's conscious needs as well as her unconscious. The namesake of the book, “Coal,” offers the speaker's wisdom and focus of the book, “Now take my word for jewel in the open light.”

In part two, Lorde moves to the next phase of her life, one with children; this section of the book most reflects Lorde's experience of having two children and her marriage to Edward Ashley Rollins in 1962 (Kulii). Because Coal was published in 1968 before her second child and her divorce, Lorde speaks on the experiences of a first pregnancy and its mysteries and miracles.

The third part of this book expresses more of Lorde's feeling of inadequacies and her fears as she begins to express the idea of separation from her husband and children. This is seen as Lorde again coming to terms with herself and her sexuality as she had done before at National University of Mexico in 1955 (Kulii).

Following this time line progression of the book, section four is comprised of a single poem that is broken down into five parts. This poem is “Martha” and is written about Frances Clayton, Lorde's life partner whom she met in Tougaloo University (Trapasso). The repetition of the number five is significant throughout the book in that there are five sections and “Martha,” the first poem in which Lorde expresses her desires for another woman is in five sections. “Martha” was written and published before Lorde's divorce and while there were never accusations of an affair, it raises the question of when and how long Lorde and Clayton were involved.

The final section of the book is a section dedicated to mourning and remembrance. The poems in this section are laments of lost and unrequited love. In “The Songless Lark,” the poet mourns the departure of a loved one, stating, “Sun shines so brightly on the hill/ before you went away.” Again in “Memorial II” the poet openly longs “I wish I could see you again.”

“Coal,” the poem that lends itself to the book’s title, is a reflection of Audre Lorde's personal relationship with society and herself as she understands them. This poem is from later in her life. The idea of the title is a reflection of the imagery of the poem.

“Coal” is one of Lorde’s less formulaic poems. The poem is written in first person, free verse and spoken in the voice of the poet. The racial context and content of this poem as well as the personal pleas found throughout make it reflect more of that of a prayer than a dramatic monologue. This poem's purpose is to create the image of the progression from the darkness of the coal to the illumination of the diamond that is held within. This also shows Lorde's life story as she struggles with her own self-image and discovers her power within her. The poem is composed of three stanzas, much like the body of a standard letter. It contains a short opening and conclusion, and the focus or the discovery occurs in the body or middle stanza.

In the poem, the speaker creates an extended metaphor of herself as a piece of coal, also establishing herself in the power of love and self-acceptance, which is portrayed as openness and diamonds. The speaker states, “Some words are open like a diamond/ on glass windows.” Furthermore, the speaker describes her passions and emotions, “Other know sun/ seeking like gypsies over my tongue/ to explode through my lips.” The idea of the coal/ diamond relationship becomes clear with the illusion to creation in that “I am Black because I come from the earth’s inside/ now take my word for jewel in the open light.” While this line supports the creation of diamonds through fire and coal, it also reinforces the metaphor of the coal as darkness in that it references the coal coming from inside the earth, while reinforcing the light and pure imagery that is found in the diamond.

This poem functions much like the book as a whole. It uses perspective to create a better understanding of an individual and that individual's growth and realizations of self-worth: in this poem’s case, the poet and her realization that she and her works are worth something because they are true and pure and should not be discounted because of her color. The book as a whole, the struggle with social acceptance and self-value is portrayed.