If what we need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly toward and through promise, is discounted as a luxury, then we give up the core -- the fountain -- of our power, our womanness; we give up the future of our worlds. (From "Poetry is Not a Luxury")

It meant being invisible.  Citation has no title
Between Our Selves (1976)
The Black Unicorn (1978 W. Her first volume of poetry The First Cities (1968) was publiAudre Lorded by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School.

Audre Lorde (born Audrey Geraldine Lorde February 18 1934 – November 17 1992) was a Caribbean-American writer and civil rights activist.