How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton celebrates both familiar and lesser-known works by one of Americas 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 Cliftons characteristic stylea 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 Cliftons poetry is simultaneously timeless and fitting for todays tumultuous moment.