Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Copper Canyon Press for permission to reprint poems from the book of light, Copyright © 1993 by Lucille Clifton.
Two lines from House of Light by Mary Oliver. Copyright © 1990 by Mary Oliver. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston.

far memory
a poem in seven parts

what i can promise to be is water,
water plain and direct as Niagara.

the question for me is
how long can i cling to this edge?

the question for you is
what have you ever traveled toward
more than your own safety?

bare smooth
as a buttock

adam thinking
she
stolen from my bone

this creation is so fierce

i would rather have been born

eve thinking
it is wild country here
brothers and sisters coupling