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

Source: Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 (BOA Editions Ltd., 2000)

With thanks and love to Marjorie Ingall, who shared this poem with me recently, not knowing that Lucille Clifton had been a favorite poet of my youth.