Coal (an excerpt)

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
Take my word for jewel in the open light.




"Coal" (excerpt) from Collected Poems by Audre Lorde. Copyright © 1968, 1970, 1973. Reprinted with the permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.