Antonius Bui

Recommendation: HOW TO CARRY WATER: SELECTED POEMS OF LUCILLE CLIFTON BY LUCILLE CLIFTON

“I hope it's fine to actually quote another person:

‘...poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the

quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and

change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.

Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external

horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences

of our daily lives.’

-Audre Lorde”

Book Description: 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.