Brionne Janae is a poet and teaching artist living in Brooklyn with their two dogs. They are the author of Because You Were Mine (2023) which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry, Blessed are the Peacemakers (2021) which won the 2020 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, and After Jubilee (2017). Brionne is a 2023 NEA Creative Writing Fellow, a Hedgebrook Alum and a proud Cave Canem Fellow.
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
~Lucille Clifton