An ode to quiet intimacy, devotion, and the everyday sacred.

In Thank the Sweet Waters, Lucille May writes with the lyric clarity and emotional precision of a poet closely attuned to the textures of love and longing. These poems dwell in the dailiness of intimacy—its sensuality, its seasons, its ruptures and repairs—and find the sacred in small, soft gestures: extra butter at breakfast, a lover’s gentle breath at night, the hush of early spring.

Distinct yet relatable, May’s debut collection takes shape as she falls in love with her wife, longs for motherhood, and falls in love again—with the man who might help make them mothers. With a voice that is grounded, tender, and quietly expansive, May invites us to witness what it means to stay present through uncertainty and to keep choosing one another.