How to Carry Water
Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton
How to Carry Water
Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton
Edited by Aracelis Girmay
american poets continuum series, no. 180
BOA Editions, Ltd. ■ Rochester, NY ■ 2020
Copyright © 2020 by The Estate of Lucille T. Clifton.
Foreword copyright © 2020 by Aracelis Girmay.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Clifton, Lucille, 1936-2010, author. | Girmay, Aracelis, editor.
Title: How to carry water : selected poems of Lucille Clifton / edited by Aracelis Girmay.
Description: First edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions, Ltd., 2020. | Series: American poets continuum series ; no. 180 | Includes index. | Summary: “A series of poems drawn from various collections published throughout the 40-year career of American poet Lucille Clifton”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020019710 (print) | LCCN 2020019711 (ebook) | ISBN 9781950774142 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781950774159 (paperback) | ISBN 9781950774166 (ebook)
Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry.
Classification: LCC PS3553.L45 H69 2020 (print) | LCC PS3553.L45 (ebook) | DDC 811/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019710
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019711
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Contents
foreword
■ from Early Uncollected Poems (1965–1969)
5/23/67 R.I.P.
SPRING THOUGHT FOR THELMA
Everytime i talk about
a poem written for many moynihans
the poet is thirty two
take somebody like me
■ from good times (1969)
my mama moved among the days
miss rosie
the 1st
running across to the lot
if i stand in my window
for deLawd
ca’line’s prayer
generations
flowers
■ from good news about the earth (1972)
after kent state
being property once myself
the lost baby poem
apology
lately
listen children
the news
the bodies broken on
song
africa
earth
God send easter
so close
poem for my sisters
■ from Uncollected Poems (1973–1974)
Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival
■ from an ordinary woman (1974)
in salem
salt
new bones
harriet
roots
to ms. ann
last note to my girls
a visit to gettysburg
this morning
the lesson of the falling leaves
i am running into a new year
turning
my poem
lucy one-eye
if mama
i was born in a hotel
light
cutting greens
i went to the valley
at last we killed the roaches
in the evenings
breaklight
some dreams hang in the air
the thirty eighth year
■ from Uncollected Poems (ca. 1975)
Anniversary 5/10/74
November 1, 1975
“We Do Not Know Very Much About Lucille’s Inner Life”
■ from two-headed woman (1980)
lucy and her girls
i was born with twelve fingers
what the mirror said
there is a girl inside
to merle
august the 12th
speaking of loss
februrary 13, 1980
new year
sonora desert poem
my friends
i once knew a man
the mystery that surely is present
the astrologer predicts at mary’s birth
a song of mary
island mary
mary mary astonished by God
the light that came to lucille clifton
testament
mother, i am mad
to joan
in populated air
■ from Next (1987)
there
this belief
why some people be mad at me sometimes
sorrow song
atlantic is a sea of bones
cruelty. don’t talk to me about cruelty
the lost women
my dream about the cows
my dream about the second coming
the death of thelma sayles
the message of thelma sayles
the death of joanne c.
enter my mother
leukemia as white rabbit
chemotherapy
the message of jo
the death of fred clifton
“i’m going back to my true identity”
in white america
shapeshifter poems
■ from quilting (1991)
i am accused of tending to the past
note to myself
poem beginning in no and ending in yes
slave cabin, sotterly plantation, maryland, 1989
whose side are you on?
shooting star
this is for the mice that live
man and wife
poem in praise of menstruation
the killing of the trees
wild blessings
somewhere
when i stand around among poets
water sign woman
photograph
december 7, 1989
to my friend, jerina
poem to my uterus
to my last period
the mother’s story
as he was dying
blessing the boats
■ from The Book of Light (1992)
LIGHT
june 20
daughters
sam
thel
11/10 again
she lived
won’t you celebrate with me
it was a dream
each morning i pull myself
here yet be dragons
the earth is a living thing
move
samson predicts from gaza the philadelphia fire
if i should
further note to clark
begin here
night vision
fury
cigarettes
leda 1
leda 2
leda 3
brothers
■ from Uncollected Poems (1993)
hometown 1993
ones like us
■ from The Terrible Stories (1996)
telling our stories
the coming of fox
dear fox
leaving fox
a dream of foxes
amazons
lumpectomy eve
1994
hag riding
rust
shadows
entering the south
the mississippi river empties into the gulf
old man river
auction street
memphis
what comes after this
blake
evening and my dead once husband
in the same week
heaven
lorena
in the meantime
■ from Blessing the Boats (2000)
the times
dialysis
libation
jasper texas 1998
alabama 9/15/63
praise song
august
study the masters
birthday 1999
grief
■ from Mercy (2004)
the gift
out of body
oh antic God
april
children
surely i am able to write poems
mulberry fields
cancer
in the mirror
blood
walking the blind dog
hands
wind on the st. marys river
the tale the shepherds tell the sheep
stop
■ from Voices (2008)
aunt jemima
cream of wheat
sorrows
this is what i know
6/27/06
■ from Uncollected Poems (2006–2010)
birth-day
mother-tongue: the land of nod
mother-tongue: we are dying
■ from Last Poems & Drafts (2006–2010)
some points along some of the meridians
new orleans
after the children died she started bathing
In the middle of the Eye
■ Previously Uncollected Poems
All Praises
bouquet
sam, jr.
MOTHER HERE IS MY CHILD
Poem To My Yellow Coat
Poem With Rhyme
Rounding the curve near Ellicot City
entering earth
to black poets
quartz lake, Alaska
Index of Poems
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Editor
Colophon
foreword
1
No one writes like Lucille Clifton, and yet, if it were possible to open a voice, like a suitcase, to see what it carries inside it, I believe that inside the voices of many contemporary U.S. American poets are the poems of Lucille Clifton. There is the ferocity of her clear sight. There is the constellatory thinking where every thing is
