A Lucille Clifton Encounter
and what I learned about being human
I feel as if I’ve always had Lucille Clifton’s poems here by my side, but that’s not literally true. Before graduate school but after Peace Corps? Her poems seem to emerge fully formed from our collective subconscious. The brief fragmentary nature of much of the work, the humor, the pop culture references all made her a poet easy to mark as”accessible” but she is much more than that dismissive word implies.
Last January when Linda Pastan passed away, I stumbled upon this video of Lucille Clifton, former Maryland Poet Laureate interviewing Linda Pastan then current Maryland Poet Laureate. When I lose hope in humanity, in poetry, or in women’s friendships, I watch this video to remind me that all of these things still exist. Even if you don’t finish this post, go look at that video now. It will restore your faith in humans.
Clifton’s poem that I return to again and again is “Blessing the Boats.”
blessing the boats
(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
I’ve read this poem more than 100 times and even now, I am startled by its multiple meanings, its heart; how it seems to me to be a profound love poem to the world.
This is the poem that I offered to my students at Highline College after D.T. was elected president. Recently, I’ve had one former student tell me how they came to my office in tears and together we read through this poem, line by line. That since that day, they’ve always kept Clifton close. I remember another student in my freshman comp course, a beautiful Latino man with his head bent down toward the page, parsing out the meaning of certain that it will / love your back / may you open your eyes to water/water waving forever
I recently found this quote of Clifton’s from a 2002 interview:
A human is not sections, is not parts. Stanley Kunitz says that poetry is the story of what it means to be human in this place, at this time… If something wants to be said — the poem — the poem knows that I will accept it… You allow it in yourself. You allow it to do its work in you.
On a Related Note: We are in another painful moment in our history, we are two weeks into what may become a protracted war in the Middle East. My ability to read the news stories day after day is limited. What I can do is read and share poems. In times of extremity, Lucille Clifton is a poet I return to. I am also reading Naomi Shihab Nye, another generous and brilliant poet who is up next.