“may you in your innocence
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sail through this to that”
– Lucille Clifton
“I need the sea because it teaches me” is the first line of Pablo Neruda’s beautiful ode to the mystery of expansive water. In his poem, every aspect of the sea, from a single wave to its vast existence, points to, in the words of Ernest Hemingway, “something that gave or withheld great favors.” In Lucille Clifton’s enchanting poem, the tide is something at “the lip of our understanding” as she rolls out this heartfelt blessing to the boats, to the people, who go forward into the mystery of unknowing, or adversity and the vast sea.. Clifton herself underwent many challenges in her life, and to me this poem speaks to, or rather, from, a deep well of strength and faith in the love at her back and the water that is “waving forever.”
Blessing the Boats
(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
Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)
From: Blessing the Boats – New and Selected Poems 1988-2000