After reading a few weightier poems recently, I wanted something that, on the surface, felt lighter. Lucille Clifton certainly delivers this in her beautiful poem “blessing the boats,” where the words feel fluid, moving around you with an almost meditative quality.

Lucille Clifton

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

I find this poem incredibly tender. Reading it, I see myself standing at the water's edge, swaying in rhythm with the waves, feeling the wind against my skin. It's so easy to romanticise a life just beyond the horizon. A life where things feel lighter, where I finally feel at ease.

In yoga, there's a concept called dharma. It is the idea that each of us has a path that is uniquely ours. You don't have to build it or figure it out, you just have to stop standing in its way. In this poem, Clifton is asking us to trust the water. She’s doesn't promise calm waters or a carefree crossing, she just offers a blessing for the journey.

How often do we overthink, hesitate, or choose the safer path because it feels more certain? What might happen if we allowed ourselves to be a little bolder and braver, trusting that even if things do not unfold exactly as we planned, they may still work out in the way they are meant to?