Lucille Clifton's 1987 poem, "Forgiving my Father", looks deeper into the relationship between a family and the effect poverty has on them. The narrator's attention to her father's money portrays the narrator as greedy and selfish, which allows the reader to try to understand the narrator's viewpoint on the complexities of forgiveness in familial relationships. It is then discovered that the narrator wants to forgive her father, and today is the day that she is ready to do this. The narrator describes the relationship between the father and the narrator, how she feels cheated by him. By looking at the use of diction and repetition in Lucille Clifton's "Forgiving my Father" it can be seen that one's ability to forgive practically is complicated by the relationships with the ones whom we are supposed to be forgiving and her forgiveness is complicated. 

In the poem, repetition plays a role, not only in the idea of repetition itself but also in the style in which the repetition is used. The style of repetition is often represented by placing words back to back. The words inside of the line are repeated directly one after the other. In different cases, this can mean different things. In stanza two, line nine, the narrator is giving the reader a sense of longing. Clifton writes "never be time enough daddy daddy old lecher" (Clifton 330).Here, by repeating the word daddy twice, the reader is given a picture of how hard it is to understand what is going on and how hard forgiveness can be. The narrator is calling out to her father. She wants him to be there, right then, at that moment and is practically begging her father to be there. This wording implies an unstated call to her dead father to come back to her, which he can never do. She is trying to get his attention, ready to forgive him now though it is too late. The use of the word lecher demonstrates her internal conflict with her recognition of her father as a flawed man while simultaneously wishing for his return. She is trying to talk to someone she knows is not there at that time. It is hard for her, she wants to let him know that its time, she is ready, and she wants to call out to her father whom she loves and tell him all of this and more. 

Though the narrator pines for her father to be able to still hear her, she also retains a resentment toward him. This is seen in line 10, when Clifton writes "old liar. I wish you were rich so I could take it all / and give the lady what she was due" (Clifton 330). She wishes to take from him something, her reaction to a perceived slight while her father was still alive. Taking from someone is a punishment, but it is also a recompense. He hurt her and she just does not understand how this is all playing out, but she just wants her dad. Despite everything that has been said or done, all she needs is to talk to her father. She has come to the realization point that it is too late for her to give her father the forgiveness she wants to share with him and does not understand how to do that. He hurt her because she is saying that he is a liar and the woman is her mother. He is a liar because he did not have money and so he could not give the mother anything and he spent it on other things that was not the mother and daughter. 

Longing was portrayed in poem throughout the use of daddy, daddy, however, in another line of this story, the line is emphasizing the importance of a particular day. In this case, there is a very important day that is to come which is described, "Today is payday, payday old man" (Clifton 330). Payday is repeated as an almost reminder of what the narrator is about to go through. She is coming to payday. Payday is usually the day where people who have been working are receiving this award, which is in most cases money, for all the work they have done. In this poem, however, the narrator is repeating the use of the word payday by showing this value of payday. It is not the regular payday for this narrator, and she is not simply just letting her father know what today really is. Payday is saying that it is time; she is ready to forgive her father. He has been in the narrators mind and dreams because she has been waiting for this time. She is trying to understand how it really is that day. The day that she has been waiting for, and its finally here and by the use of repeating payday she is just repeating it in her head, saying it's here, its time, she is ready to forgive her father for his wrong deeds. It is showing the complexity level of how she has to repeat what she's saying payday over again because it is hard for her to have the ability to forgive, and now that the day is here, she does not know and she is emphasizing that this is an important time. 

Friday is used for the first time in the middle of the sentence in the first stanza, and then used once again in the last stanza, end of the sentence. It is not only spread out by that, but also is synonymous to payday in both occurrences. Friday is the end of the week, it almost represents when the narrator is talking about the day, as a bad reminder. The narrator understands that Friday is in fact payday, but as mentioned earlier the payday is much different. She is reminded of all of these paydays in her past, which were memories that she would prefer to be locked away. She does not want to go back to these memories, but as she is realizing that today is payday, the day that she is willing to forgive her father, of all her trouble in her past, she is starting to realize all of those memories. Clifton says "It is Friday, we have come/to the paying of the bills," and usually when someone says that it is Friday, it is joyful, and all that the narrator seems to remember is the negatives things along with "come up empty any Friday" (Clifton 330). She is just putting thoughts into her head by repeating the word she is questioning her original ability to forgive which is payday. The narrator wants to forgive her father, but this repetition of the word Friday, which to her, is this day that all of these traumatizing situations happened in her life, is popping into her mind on this payday.. 

It is said that it is much harder to be able to forgive someone when it is face to face. The narrator is realizing that it is time to forgive her father but it also the fact that he is gone. She is replaying important events in life, some that were not so good repeatedly in her mind. The poem is describing the relationship between the narrator and her father, and how the narrator wants to have a better understanding of what is going on and how she is coming up with this ability to forgive. Despite everything that has happened in the past, she now knows that it is time to forgive someone that has caused her the most pain. Lucille Clifton portrays in the poem forgiving my Father how it was hard for her to forgive but it is time for this forgiveness especially with someone that it is not so easy to forgive with, by repetition to understand that the narrator is having complications with her ability to forgive. 
