Lisa Mangini Lisa Mangini (Travis Lynn/Lori Lynn) Next time I read it aloud, I think I will wear my Madonna t-shirt!
When I read the poem aloud to an audience, it always gets chuckles and murmurs that I interpret as “I can relate to that.” In any event, it got me thinking about how often I-because of the way I express my femme-ness-am perceived as straight, and how I constantly have to decide whether or not to come out. Who knows what was going on in her mind/life that day? She could have been too preoccupied with any number of things to notice my charms. In hindsight, I feel a little silly about doing so. In the moment, I took this very personally. Furthermore, while the poem’s speaker wears a Madonna T-shirt (which may or may not suggest her age), the poet herself is a middle-aged woman and so the poem can also be interpreted as challenging the old taboo against older women writing about their sexuality. How has it felt to publish this poem-and read it in public? Not only does this poem flirt openly, it “comes out” in the title. Yet delicious-looking pair of sticky buns in your basket Remark about the gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free May not be wearing a labyris around her neckĪnd made some slightly suggestive, sleazy So fast, thinking I’m some straight womanīecause this chick in her Madonna T-shirt You slapped down between your organic broccoli THE POEM To the Lovely Butch in Front of Me at the A&P From 2008 to 2010, she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA. Newman has received poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors and the Massachusetts Book Award. She is also widely-known for her groundbreaking 1990 children’s book, Heather Has Two Mommies, as well as Sparkle Boy, which received several awards in 2018. Lesléa Newman has created over 70 books for readers of all ages including the poetry collections I Carry My Mother, Lovely and Still Life with Buddy and the novel-in-verse October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, which received 30 awards. about being mistaken as straight, feeling afraid to write about happiness, writing about genderless sex and imagining change-personally and politically. But poems continued to come in, so this month’s special installment features four more feminist poets writing and talking to Ms. Muse, featuring Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie.
The result was last month’s installment of Ms. Relationships and eros-its joys and comforts, our longings, losses, passionsĪnd questions-is its own form of defiance.Īnd so I invited any poets that happened to see my call to send poems that push against the very concept of “theme,” that make diverse experiences of love visible, that might be controversial because of a pronoun, that redefine, remember or reimagine love. Reconnecting with ourselves, especially that which connectsĪnd sustains us, is its own form of resistance. Our daily lives on the most fundamental levels as a means to overwhelm,ĭiscourage and weaken us. I’ve come to understand that part of this administration’s strategyĪgainst those of us paying attention is to distract us constantly and interrupt Writing and/or reading a love poem can be its own from of Muse just over a year ago as “an antidote to the news,” and “to fortify-and defy.” And there are many kinds of antidotes. While our leaders continue daily to cage children, take away women’s rights to control our own bodies, threaten and oppress people of color and LGBTQ folks and families, allow corporations to harm the environment and dismantle democracy-I put out a call for “love poems.”ĭoing so felt potentially questionable, even inappropriate. Muse is a discovery place for riotous, righteous and resonant feminist poetry that nourishes and gives voice to a rising tide of female resistance-brought to you by Ms. digital columnist Chivas Sandage.
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