66 Quotes by Lucille Clifton

blessing the boats(at saint mary’s)may the tidethat is entering even nowthe lip of our understandingcarry you outbeyond the face of fearmay you kissthe wind then turn from itcertain that it willlove your backmay youopen your eyes to waterwater waving foreverand may you in your innocencesail through this to that

won't you celebrate with mewhat i have shaped intoa kind of life? i had no model.born in babylonboth nonwhite and womanwhat did i see to be except myself?i made it uphere on this bridge betweenstarshine and clay,my one hand holding tightmy other hand; come celebratewith me that everydaysomething has tried to kill meand has failed.

We cannot create what we can't imagine.

The moon is queen of everything. She rules the oceans, rivers, rain. When I am asked whose tears these are; I always blame the moon.

the lost womenI need to know their namesthose women I would have walked with,jauntily the way men go in groupsswinging their arms, and the onesthose sweating women whom I would have joinedAfter a hard game to chew the fatwhat would we have called each other laughingjoking into our beer? where are my gangs,my teams, my mislaid sisters?all the women who could have known me,where in the world are their names?

you have your own storyyou know about the fears the tearsthe scar of disbeliefyou know that the saddest liesare the ones we tell ourselvesyou know how dangerous it isto be born with breastsyou know how dangerous it isto wear dark skin

these hips are big hips.they need space to move around in.they don't fit into littlepetty places.

You might as well answer the door, my child,the truth is furiously knocking.

come celebratewith me that everydaysomething has tried to kill meand has failed.