I love my hips too…it’s that little pooch that I’m not so wild about!

Homage to My Hips”, Lucille Clifton
“Homage to My Hips”, is a story written by Lucille Clifton. The poem is quite simple, short yet the author manages to paint a collage of both imagery and beauty of a woman’s hips thru her poetic language.  Although she seems to be a bit stuck on her physical self, she also makes it known that her body is her own it is her.
She writes: “these hips are big hips, they need space to move around in. they don’t fit into petty places. “These are free hips”. (1-6) her big beautiful hips reveal feelings of strong empowerment to the progression of women in these lines. In the opening lines of the poem, Clifton writes: “What is being said here is that women need just as much opportunity to thrive as men rather than being thrown into a corner.
She shares that her hips are strong yet powerful in the lines “they go where they want to go.” “They do what they want to do, these hips are mighty.” (9-11) she manages to catch the symbolism of both internal and external strength from a female’s perspective. Men flex and flaunt their muscles and women are just as mighty thru flexing and flaunting there power thru the female anatomy.
“I have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top” (13-15) the author notes in these lines that sex is a factor in the poem. She shares that her hips can be turned into an advantage thru teasing; manipulating or influencing men into letting her have her way. She boasts that women can use female body power over their male counterpart’s as sort of an equalizer against the male’s physical stature.