Lucille Clifton

In her poem "amazons," Lucille Clifton writes of warrior women, each with one remaining breast, dancing fiercely in a circle of shared loss and survival.In "the lost baby poem," she speaks to an "almost body" dropped in the sewers rather than born in the winter "of the disconnected gas and no car."And in the chilling "shapeshifter poems," an abused little girl thinks that if she can lie in bedstill enoughshut enoughhard enoughshapeshifter may notwalk tonightthe full moon may notfind him hereIntensely personal and frightfully honest, Lucille Clifton's poetry can be read as a resume of her life, one lived quite literally as an open book.

Three a.m. Once again I'm wide awake. All the doctor shows tell me this is what happens to a woman my age. I'm staring at a magazine distributed by a company that manufactures hormones. Loni Anderson is "Facing Fifty!" with a visage that appears to have been carved out of peach ice cream.The essential piece of advice that most print media offer women on the subject of aging is, DON'T. I stand before the bathroom mirror doing the thumbs-and-forefingers face lift. But only for a moment. A room away, piled on my desk, is hard-copy evidence proving that some women of my generation wear their years both visibly and magnificently.

Former Poet Laureate of Maryland and three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Lucille Clifton will read from her poetry at the Howard County East Columbia branch library tomorrow.rTC Her reading will be part of an annual event to raise money for the Friends of the Howard County library, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustaining the library's excellence. Tickets for the 7 p.m. event are $15 for adults and $5 for students.Mrs. Clifton said she might read from her new book of poems, "The Terrible Stories," which will be released next year.

Lucille Clifton credits her six children with inspiring much of her work. They taught her patience, she says. They also kept her humble.She tells a story about reading her award-winning poems at the Library of Congress, then coming home to iron clothes. "What is this great poet doing ironing?" she wondered aloud. "The kids laughed, saying, 'Are you crazy?' And I came back to earth."Ms. Clifton will read her poetry at the St. Mary's College Literary Festival in St. Mary's City. Taking place today, tomorrow and May 26 to 28, the festival is a series of poetry and fiction readings beginning and ending the St. Mary's College third annual summer writing workshop.

In her unassuming home in Owen Brown village she's a neighbor, mother, grandmother and friend. To the rest of the world, Lucille Clifton is an award-winning poet, a weaver of words about life, living and love.Today Mrs. Clifton will share some of her work along with poets Sharon Olds and Galaway Kinnel in the sold-out performance of "Poetry of Love."The 4 p.m. reading at Slayton House, in which poets will take turns performing their work to create a sort of three-way poetic conversation, is part of the Columbia Festival of the Arts.

The following is a schedule of events for Artscape '92.2 Law Center, UB -- Passager: literary readings.5:15 p.m.Family Performance Tent -- Black Cherry Puppets: puppet show.Law Center, UB -- Ebenezer Cooke Poetry Society: literary readings.5:30 p.m.Law Center, UB -- Baltimore Branch, National League of American Pen Women: literary readings.5:45 p.m.Decker Stage --- C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana band: zydeco.Law Center, UB -- Eisenhower Library Writer's Group: literary readings.6 p.m.G; Law Center, UB -- Scop Publications: literary readings.

QUILTING: POEMS 1987-1990.Lucille Clifton.BOA Editions. 89 pages. $12 paper. Lucille Clifton's seventh book of poems is perhaps the strongest evocation to date of one of America's most consistent and powerful poetic voices. In this new book, which is organized around the metaphor of quilting, Ms. Clifton -- a former Maryland poet laureate who now is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College -- returns to the themes of community, family, love, myth and language that have been her trademark since her poems began appearing in the late 1960s.

MEMORY OF KIN:STORIES ABOUT FAMILYBY BLACK WRITERS.Edited by Mary HelenWashington.Doubleday.$24.95. 416 pages.I have an embarrassing confession: For a few years now, have been boycotting certain black female writers. For the most part, I have found a couple of them, particularly Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, too dense, depressing and anti-male. Frankly, the black people they wrote about simply don't resemble any black person I know. But I admit that I probably am avoiding the unpleasant realities about life and relationships that these writers expose.