"blessing the boats" by Lucille Clifton

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 22, 2018   blessing the boats   Lucille Clifton

(at St. Mary's)   may the tide that is entering even now the lip of our understanding carry you out beyond the face of fear may you kiss the wind then turn from it certain that it will love your back    may you open your eyes to water water waving forever and may you in your innocence sail through this to that                From Quilting: Poems 1987–1990 by Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 2001 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with permission of BOA Editions Ltd. All rights reserved. About This Poem   "blessing the boats" appeared in Quilting: Poems 1987–1990 (BOA Editions, 1991).   Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York, in 1936. She was the author of several poetry collections, including Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000 (BOA Editions, 2000), which won the National Book Award, and Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969–1980 (BOA Editions, 1987), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1999 to 2005. She died in 2010. Poetry by Clifton   The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965–2010 (BOA Editions, 2012) "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith "The Long Hand Wishes It Was Used" by Jackie Clark "Occurrences across the Chromatic Scale" by Reginald Shepherd April Guest Editor: Tracy K. Smith   Thanks to Tracy K. Smith, current United States poet laureate and author of Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Smith and our guest editors for the year. Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038