How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton (Ed. Aracelis Girmay)
“Clifton was one of America’s great poets, whose work throughout her lifetime was committed to chronicling and celebrating black lives. The honesty, joy, wisdom, and hope she brought to this task is regenerative.” —Tracy K. Smith, former U.S. Poet Laureate
Edited with a Foreword by Aracelis Girmay
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.
About the Author
Aracelis Girmay is a poet who makes works across genres. She is the author of the poetry collections GREEN OF ALL HEADS (BOA, 2025), the black maria (BOA, 2016), Kingdom Animalia (BOA, 2011), and Teeth (Curbstone, 2007). For her work she was named a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2018. Her books have also been named finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She has received fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, Civitella Ranieri, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Cave Canem Foundation, among other foundations. Girmay is the author of the chapbook, and was a flower, made in collaboration with book artist Valentina Améstica. Other recent collaborations include the picture books Kamau & ZuZu Find a Way with artist Diana Ejaita and What Do You Know? with artist Ariana Fields (both published with Enchanted Lion). Commissioned by the Authors Guild in collaboration with Tanglewood, Girmay is currently working on an experiment for the stage with director Dawn M. Simmons and musicians Ashleigh Gordon and Brittany J. Green.
Girmay is the editor of How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton (BOA, 2020) and So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth (Haymarket Books, 2023). She is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund and in 2025 completed her final year as Editor-at-Large for the Blessing the Boats Selections.