Homage to My Hips

My friend Melanie gave me a photocopy of this poem when I was feeling pretty low about my self and thesis during our senior year of college. I put it up in my studio and Adina and I thought it was pretty empowering. We proceeded to both finish our theses, find men and spin them like tops-- good times! Anyways, the poem has been on my mind, because I was thinking about writing and poetry and some new embarrassing poetic experiments in my journal. The problem was, I couldn't remember what this particular poem was called or who wrote it. My search engine words (top+ big hips+poem) pulled up allllllll sorts of interesting things, but I found it today. I love this poem.

Homage to My Hips

these hips are big hips.
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

Lucille Clifton