blessing the boats
by Lucille Clifton
(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 love the beauty of a blessing poem, and this one so simple of what carries us from this to that, with innocence somehow the requisite part of the passage.
Clifton, blessing the boats. The title poem of Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000 (BOA Editions, 2000)
