Writing the Poetry of Place and Departure
The world, as well as our place in it, is constantly changing, and while that fact is easy to recognize, it sometimes feels impossible to articulate. We will read these poems and use their poetic structure as inspiration for our own work.
Read the poem “Blessing the Boats” by Lucille Clifton.
Think about the poem’s structure:
In this poem Clifton refers to the literal blessing of the boats in St. Clement’s Island in Maryland (a tradition that also exists in Louisiana), but she also seems to offer a blessing to something more abstract that is moving beyond her.
May [ offer a descriptive wish that takes as long to say as a single breath, or that is a single long sentence]
May [do it again, and make sure there is a subtle connection]
May [do it again]
May [do it again, but in half of a breath, or half of a sentence]
This is a sample poem that uses the structure of Clifton’s poem to travel to its own place.
To my son who moved away
May the sound of the music that
hypnotized your mother call to you
every time you close your eyes.
May, in that moment between life and sleep, you
remember the gray green of the bayou that you loved,
the smell of our earth, the green of our trees.
May you touch the Atlantic, but remember the lake,
the ground that holds your mother,
to not forget us, not me.