Lorde, in Poetry is Not a Luxury, parallels love through her articulation of The Erotic. In this space, poetry gives way to a process that begins with feeling, manifests into language, which then creates ideas, which finally gives way to potential tangible action. This action is undefined, but it can be assumed that what lies under this concept are communities and movements that support and benefit the people or things they fight for. In other words, action that gives way to more loving. Clearly, for Lorde, love is a process, and not a one-and-done one either. Love is a continuous self-imposed work that one must engage with. Love, like poetry, is clearly not a luxury. It is a necessity. Lorde says that "The White Fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us--the poet--whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free" (34). Loving is a desire to listen to the within to achieve the freedom we deserve. Loving is an engagement with the self to be free and guide others in their freedom via the doing that it makes possible.
