Lucille Clifton (1936—2010) was an award winning poet, fiction writer, and author of children's books. Her poetry collection, Blessing the Boats: New & Selected Poems 1988-2000 (BOA, 2000), won the National Book Award for Poetry. In 1988 she became the only author to have two collections selected in the same year as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir (BOA, 1987), and Next: New Poems (BOA, 1987). In 1996, her collection The Terrible Stories (BOA, 1996), was a finalist for the National Book Award. Among her many other awards and accolades are the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Frost Medal, and an Emmy Award. In 2013, her posthumously published collection The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 (BOA, 2012), was awarded the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry.

Other poems by Lucille Clifton in Verse Daily:
April 11, 2021:   "sorrow song" "Early wind, the loose pane rattles. Already..."
September 18, 2012:   "night vision" "the girl fits her body in..."

Books by Lucille Clifton:

Other poems on the web by Lucille Clifton:
Twenty-seven poems
Twenty-nine poems
Ten poems