How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton

Edited with a Foreword by Aracelis Girmay A special thank you to the Lannan Foundation and to all of our Clifton Challenge Grant supporters and Kickstarter backers for making this book possible! How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton celebrates both familiar and lesser-known works by one of America’s most beloved poets, including 10 newly discovered poems that have never been collected. These poems celebrating black womanhood and resilience shimmer with intellect, insight, humor, and joy, all in Clifton’s characteristic style—a voice that the late Toni Morrison described as “seductive with the simplicity of an atom, which is to say highly complex, explosive underneath an apparent quietude.” Selected and introduced by award-winning poet Aracelis Girmay, this volume of Clifton’s poetry is simultaneously timeless and fitting for today’s tumultuous moment. Excerpt from "water sign woman" the woman who feels everything sits in her new house waiting for someone to come who k