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Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton Books

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“blessing the boats (at saint 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”

MayEyeFacesCertainTurnsUnderstandingWaterForeverWindBlessingKissingLipsSaintBoatInnocenceTidesMarySailEntering
Book:Quilting: poems, 1987-1990
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“I am running into a new year and the old years blow back like a wind that I catch in my hair like strong fingers like all my old promises and it will be hard to let go of what I said to myself about myself when I was sixteen and twenty-six and thirty-six but I am running into a new year and I beg what i love and I leave to forgive me.”

YearsSaidHardRunningStrongWindHairPromiseLetting GoSixTwentiesForgivingFingersBlowThirtyNew YearSixteenForgive MeOld YearHard To Let Go
Book:An ordinary woman
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“won't you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself? i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.”

KindMadeHandsBornModelsEverydayCelebrateMade ItBridgesClayKill MeBabylonHand Holding
Book:The Book of Light
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“the lost women I need to know their names those women I would have walked with, jauntily the way men go in groups swinging their arms, and the ones those sweating women whom I would have joined After a hard game to chew the fat what would we have called each other laughing joking into our beer? where are my gangs, my teams, my mislaid sisters? all the women who could have known me, where in the world are their names?”

KnowsMenWorldWayNeedsHardGamesNamesLostKnownLaughingGroupsTeamArmsFatsBeerGangSweating
Book:Next: new poems
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“wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton i wish them cramps. i wish them a strange town and the last tampon. I wish them no 7-11. i wish them one week early and wearing a white skirt. i wish them one week late. later i wish them hot flashes and clots like you wouldn't believe. let the flashes come when they meet someone special. let the clots come when they want to. let them think they have accepted arrogance in the universe, then bring them to gynecologists not unlike themselves.”

ThinkingWantBelieveLastsUniverseWishWhiteWeekSpecialStrangeSonLike YouLateTownsHotAcceptedArroganceFlashSkirtsCrampsSpecial SomeoneTamponsGynecologistsHot Flashes
Book:Quilting: poems, 1987-1990
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“If i should enter the house and speak with my own voice, at last, about its awful furnitutre, pulling apart the covering over the dusty bodies; the randy father, the husband holding ice in his hand like a blessing, the mother bleeding into herself and the small imploding girl, i say if i should walk into that web, who will come flying after me, leaping tall buildings? you?”

IfsShouldBodyHandsLastsMotherGirlFatherHouseSpeakVoiceMy OwnWalksBuildingBlessingHusbandFlyingIceAwfulTallPullingCoveringBleedingRandyTall Buildings
Book:The Book of Light
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