Born from the tender, untidy depths of intimacy, May’s poems move like water—sometimes trickling, sometimes rushing—capturing the wild, vulnerable essence of love and heartbreak. Deeply rooted in the Appalachian mountains she calls home, her work carries the earthy textures of place and season, where soil, rain, and tangled branches mirror the cycles of intimacy, rupture, and repair.
“It’s difficult to find a collection where every poem lands; however, in Thank the Sweet Waters, so many of them genuinely reflect the core of love’s past, present, and hopeful future,” said Amy Brozio-Andrews, Independent Book Review. “A thoughtful gift or worthwhile addition to your own bookshelf, Thank the Sweet Waters highlights all that’s possible when we surrender to perfectly imperfect love.”
The collection traces an intimate journey of love and transformation as May reflects on falling in love with her wife, her yearning for motherhood, and falling in love again—with the man who might make them mothers.
At its heart, Thank the Sweet Waters is a meditation on presence: on choosing to stay soft even when life feels unsteady, on embracing the profound simplicity of ordinary gestures, on letting the body and heart speak freely.
Lucille May lives with her wife outside Asheville, North Carolina, where she writes poetry and creative nonfiction inspired by relationships, the cycles of nature, birth and death, and the spirituality woven into everyday life. She works on local farms, tends a vibrant home, and cultivates a life attuned to the natural rhythms around her.
Thank the Sweet Waters is available in paperback and e-book formats through the publisher’s website, Otterpine.com; Amazon; Bookshop.org; and Barnes & Noble.
For bulk orders and media inquiries, contact Otterpine at media@otterpine.com.
