Audre Lorde published her first poem as a teenager, and went on to become the poet laureate of New York State. In "Hanging Fire" she takes on the voice of a young girl whose emotions are figuratively on fire and who wishes her mother who is "in the bedroom with the door closed" would come out to help her cool down. Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 9 Unit 4's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Poetry, poemcrazy, Nikki-Rosa, We Real Cool, Fast Break, Identity, Ego Tripping, Hanging Fire, odes, Sonnet 18, In Response to Executive Order 9066, Young, Poetry Cafe, poems by Nikki Giovanni