The poem “forgiving my father” by Lucille Clifton grabs my attention in a way that no other poem does. The message of the poem is about one daughter who resents her dad because he does not have money to support the family and he is always asking for more time to give them the money. What the daughter wants to express in the poem is that she gave her dad ample time to give them the money, but the time has passed. She is not going to wait and waste more time. What I want to emphasize from this poem are three important items that grabbed my attention. First, the author uses an example of simile to convey how hurtful and frustrating her situation was. Secondly, the poem as a whole was thought provoking. It made me think of the opposite of her life, a family with money and opportunities. Lastly, the author uses a metaphor that compares the father in this poem to an empty pocket which in my perspective is miserable. Through these examples, I will attempt to draw meaning from the poem and analyze her emotions.

“All weeks you have stood in my dreams like a ghost” (Clifton, 525) we find a simile, which captured my attention. Even without reading the poem we can figure out that the father, nowadays, is being an awful father. He is forcing his daughter worry about her family instead of other things. Those moments are so terrible that he reminds her of a “ghost” and by ghost she means someone who is in her nightmares and she cannot rest. As we can identify a “ghost” as a symbol of scare or horror, we can also relate the ghost to a person who is coming and leaving every day, as her father is. She sees her father as someone who fails at his most important job which is to take care of his family. The simile captures my attention the way the author explains what the father means to his daughter in comparison to a ghost.

After reading the poem, I realized how lucky we are to be alive but we tend to forget the most important things in life including family. We never really treasure what we have until we lose it. Take for example two types of families: the first family includes parents who live in the suburbs with high paying jobs, and a maid at home taking care of the house. They are financially stable to take care of three kids who attend prep schools and go on vacation trips every holiday. In contrast, the second family constitutes of parents who in their youth were not brought up the right way therefore finding themselves in the wrong group of people. In consequence, doomed with drugs and alcohol and now struggling to earn minimum wage. Their three kids who rarely attend to school are the ones who have to pay for the parents’ misfortune. Thinking about both families makes me appreciate the life I live with two parents who are willing to sacrifice anything for the happiness of their child. Their love gives me the opportunity to focus on my studies, my health, my sport, and all other goals I have. Furthermore, I think about the girl in the poem and the hatred she has towards her lazy father. She feels helpless being born into a poverty with a dad who squanders his money on irrelevant things resulting in her having to fend for herself.

The author depicts the broken relationship between the daughter and the father by showing the father as being only a means financial stability to the daughter. She refers to her father as “a pocket that was going to open” (Clifton, 526), indirectly branding him as merely a source of financial aid to her. In the text, she constantly uses words like “payday”, “bills”, “accounting”, and “pocket” ( Clifton, 525-526) to describe her father meaning when she thinks about her father, all she imagines is money instead of a father figure. Each time I read the poem, I cannot imagine how miserable her life must be in order for her to see her dad as just a source of money. In addition to treating her dad as merely a source of finances, the daughter addresses him in scornful tones. She uses words like “old man”, “old liar”, “pauper”, and “prisoner”(Clifton, 525-526) in order to show how hostile she is towards him for leaving her disappointed and hopeless by “coming [home] empty every Friday” ( Clifton, 525) without his paycheck.

The author sends out an important message both to children and adults. To adults who are not yet financially stable or do not have time and opportunity to care for their kids, they should not have children because in the long run they are the ones who suffer for their mishaps. To parents stuck in impoverished homes, children do not have to feel emotionally secluded because of the situation. A child with caring, poor parents can be happier than an affluent one neglected by one’s parents. Also to privileged children, appreciate what you have because you never know when the opportunity might pass you by. Lastly, to less fortunate kids, never give up on your dreams because there is going to be a brief moment in time when you feel everything fall into place. I think everyone needs to read this poem to learn to appreciate the little things in life because in a world that is so fast paced and rapidly getting more advanced, it is very easy to ignore the most important things.
