How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton

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

■ from good news about the earth (1972)

after kent state

being property once myself

the bodies broken on

■ from Uncollected Poems (1973–1974)

Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival

■ from an ordinary woman (1974)

last note to my girls

a visit to gettysburg

this morning

the lesson of the falling leaves

i am running into a new year

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

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

■ 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

■ from The Book of Light (1992)

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

■ from Uncollected Poems (1993)

hometown 1993

ones like us

■ from The Terrible Stories (1996)

the mississippi river empties into the gulf

old man river

auction street

memphis

what comes after this

blake

evening and my dead once husband

■ from Blessing the Boats (2000)

■ from Mercy (2004)

surely i am able to write poems

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