feminist poetry

Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems

alicia — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0000

All too often, words are put together solely to get from one plot point to another. It can be easy to forget that when put together well, they can be transcendent. Luckily, Alice Walker is here to remind us of that fact. With her new book of poems, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, Walker creates images that stick with you for their simplicity and strength.

Most of her poems are short, made up of a sentence or two, but all the more powerful for their brevity. One poem, called “I Will Not Deny,” takes up a single page, and ends with the very sensible advice “I will deny/me nothing/of myself.” Her turn of phrase makes her very short poems seem much longer, and much better for it. In “You Confide In Me,” she replies, after being told that the subject of the poem is lonely, that “You do not/own/a sofa!” and later, “A sofa is/essential/to all/that/lures/romance/to/your boudoir.” The sentiment is delightfully simple and wonderfully astute. The whole book is approximately 150 pages, which manages to feel complete yet not long enough.

Most of them cover topics on love or loss of love, particularly of family members. Walker discusses that her family history led her to learn how to dance, and that made her an unbridled optimist. That warmth flows freely through the poems. Predictably, they are also unabashedly feminist. She writes in the poem “The Taste of Grudge,” “I do not/regret/that/I am/imperfect./In each crack/there is/an orchid/growing.” In another poem, she warns “There is no/graceful/way/to/carry/hatred.” She writes about the strength within yourself, and how to find it. You can sense her life has not been easy, but her poems give the reader the benefit of her hard work.

Hard Times Require Furious Dancing should be required reading. It is full of beautiful words, gorgeous messages and powerful images. As Walker herself says, “I was born to grow, /alongside my garden of plants, /poems list this one.” Thank goodness for that.

Written by: Taylor Rhodes, January 11th 2011

Burning of the Three Fires

annette — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Jeanne Marie Beaumont

BOA Editions

Burning of the Three Fires marks the third collection of poems from Jeanne Marie Beaumont. Beaumont, who won a National Poetry Series award for her first book, experiments with form and examines the female condition in her latest collection. The result is a vibrant mix of poems that keep readers turning the pages and analyzing the words before them.

“Girl on a Scale,” though not atypical in form, vividly depicts an eating disorder. Beaumont utilizes imagery and diction seamlessly to convey the “ungrowing” of one who is suffering from body image and eating issues. As the speaker enters a dream-like world, filled with icicles that masticate air and saplings, she imagines her daughter standing at the edge of her bed in the form of a seabird. “But birds eat constantly,” she thinks, realizing it can’t be the same girl who lets “food fall away/from her mouth.” Some of the most striking lines that offer a realistic image of eating disorders are: “Not a gain again./Ungrown so thin she slipped/between the bars/and hunkered/inside her cage.” As the poem concludes, the speaker wakes up and sees “it was she in the bed,/toward her/the IV dripped dripped/like an early thaw.” It makes for a powerful ending to such a haunting poem.

The title poem, “Burning of the Three Fires,” gives readers the opportunity to do more of their own interpreting. While “Rite (to Combat a Bad Mood)” offers eight mostly nonsensical tips and observations that are uplifting and really do combat a sour mood.

“Channeling Sylvia: 8-Ball (Interrogation)” is a verbatim transcript from a Magic 8-Ball conversation Beaumont had with Sylvia Plath. It is humorous and deviates from the typical poem in its question-and-answer structure.

Burning of the Three Fires shows that Beaumont isn’t afraid to exercise her craft by experimenting with new forms of poetry. Her work offers a refreshing blend of phrases and images that intrigue and inspire.

Written by: Michelle Tooker, October 27th 2010

make/shift: feminisms in motion (Issue 7)

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Edited by Jessica Hoffmann, Daria Yudacufski

make/shift is a satisfying thing. Describing itself as "feminisms in motion," it is a much-needed breath of fresh air for both our minds and our movement. Deep, political roots give way to a body of thought-provoking content and are topped with flexible branches of ideas, encouraging discourse and change. The magazine itself has full-color front and back covers. The entire inside is in black and white. It's heavy on text, and I like it that way. The layout is easy to read; no "continued on page seven" nonsense here. Pictures are scant, but clear and artful. There are advertisements, and as expected for a feminist magazine, they're not of the demeaning garden-variety like the ones we see in other magazines.

make/shift boasts quality content; empowering, thought-provoking, and provocative. I saw boatloads of grassroots activism and resources, along with essays, interviews, news stories, poetry, and reviews. The advice column is answered by Nomy Lamm, which is pretty sweet. Reading this magazine brought up a lot of thoughts and feelings I haven't experienced in years. I felt both educated and encouraged, as if they were saying, "You're capable of making a difference. Then, tell us about what you did!"

Most magazines make me feel like I need to change my body and my life in order to be happier and more accepted. Instead of stress and insecurity, I welcomed the empowerment. "Why Misogynists Make Great Informants" definitely struck a chord in me. It made me recall my earliest days of activism, the people I met and the situations I encountered. I was disappointed to experience sexism and homophobia in activist groups. After fervently waiting for so long to move away and meet "my own kind," such experiences made me feel as if nothing on Earth was definitive.

Nomy Lamm's advice to an assault survivor's question both educated and moved me. I was very happy to see a column about self-publishing poetry, and plan to send my writing to a few of the DIY publishers listed. (Cross your fingers for me, yes?) In a nutshell, every article made me see things a little differently or taught me something new. All magazines should aspire to have high-quality content like make/shift.

Written by: Jacquie Piasta, August 22nd 2010

Finding Gloria: Nos/otras

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Edited by Noemi Martinez

In the spirit of Gloria Anzaldúa, Finding Gloria: Nos/otras is an independent zine featuring the words and art of various contributors. Anzaldúa was a writer, poet, and artist whose work focused mostly on her identities as a woman, Chicana, lesbian, and feminist. The title of the zine comes from Anzaldúa’s work. Some of the contributors work directly in projects honoring her, and many of the pieces cite Anzaldúa or use her style of writing.

As Noemi “Hermana, Resist” Martinez explains on the very first page, this is a zine for those trying to create a space for themselves – a space that might be affected by the dominant culture, but that tries to break free from that dominant culture as much as possible. The basis of this is the term Nos/otras, created by Anzaldúa herself, is nos (Spanish for we) and otras (the Spanish word for other). Anzaldúa combined them to show that it’s impossible to view ourselves as separate from the other, or the other as separate from ourselves.

With these concepts in mind, the work included in this zine takes on a fresh perspective. The very first image you see (which happens to be one of my favorites in the zine) is the work of Celeste de Luna, and it is that of two women standing on opposite sides of a river. The women appear to be similar in age and each is a mother with children, who are also close in age, yet their differences shine through in their appearance, particularly in their clothing and the way they carry themselves. They have things in common, yet they remain divided.

As a big fan of Anzaldúa’s work, it meant a lot to me to see her legacy live on in the works of these other women. The contributors are obviously inspired by her and continue to build on her work with their own poems, collages, drawings, and other creative works. It has been a few years since I got my hands on a homemade zine, and this style lends itself well to the content within its pages. Sometimes the page numbers or other text were cut off, and some of the images were hard to make out because of the resolution of the print, but I think the energy and emotion is still captured.

Written by: frau sally benz, February 26th 2010