Hello readers! Every week, the BOA staff shares one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. For this week's poem, we'd like to share a special thank you to Bill Murray for performing Lucille Clifton's "Blessing the Boats" on CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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 you back       may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that.

Read this and many other beloved poems in The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010.