Northside Poetry Book

I LOVE judy grahn. her poetry had such a feeling of community and warmth while at the same time maintaining a sense of history and realism.
Ah Love, you smell of petroleum
and overwork
with grease on your fingernails,
paint in your hair
there is a pained look in your eye
from no appreciation
you speak to me of the lilacs
and appleblossoms we ought to have
the banquets we should be serving[...]
someday. Meantime here is your cracked plate
with spaghetti. Wash your hands &
touch me, praise
my cooking. I shall praise your calluses.
we shall dance in the kitchen
of our imagination.

This volume includes The Common Woman Poems in their entirety, selections from Edward the Dyke, She Who, Confrontations with the Devil in the Form of Love, The Queen of Wands, and the Queen of Swords, we well as some new poems. I'm reading the full length volume of The Queen of Swords right now which is, hmm, a theatre poem? a poetic play? a modern epic poem?, based on the Sumerian myth of the goddess Innana/Helen/Ishtar/Astare. However I think I like the poems better a bit more out of context as they are in this volume. My favorite selections though I think are from Confrontations with the Devil in the Form of Love.

Some of the poem in this volume get a little weird occasionally in that Mary Dalyesque way of being too smart and punster-y for me to really follow, but it seems really clear to me that Judy Grahn has been a seminal (if you will) influence on a lot of lesbian/feminist poets, even if she's not as widely known as other writers. Apparently Ntozake Shange was partly inspired to write for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf after reading The Common Woman Poems, Ani di Franco has done readings of "Detroit Annie, Hitchhiking", and her favorite poem is said to be A Woman Is Talking to Death. Reading some of the She Who poems I see a lot of similarities to some of Alix Olsen's calmer pieces and both The Queen of Swords and The Queen of Wands seem as if they were written while Judy Grahn was sharing a studio with Judy Chicago. This creative cross-pollination can hardly be a coincidence. Grahn talks of consulting with lesbianfeminist luminaries like Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldua, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Cherrie Moraga, and June Jordan. She says that her writing is so tied to community that "if I don't have [a community] I will go create one, just to have a community to write into; to connect with; to write from." The title of the volume, Love Belongs To Those Who Do The Feeling, is taken from the poem "a funeral plainsong from a younger woman to an older woman" -- a poem Grahn wrote for the funeral of her former partner and longtime friend. It is specifically noted that the poem is for ceremonial use only (e.g. funerals and memorials), not to be simply read, as poetry, in a appreciation of its artistry. It is a poem meant for a very specific purpose: creating a space for queer women to mourn & honor the death of one of their family/women and take on her work and passions as a way of remembering within the community.

i will be your mouth now, to do your singing
breath belongs to those who do the breathing.
[...]
now you have left you can be
wherever the fire is when it blows itself out.
now you are a voice in any wind
i am a single wind
now you are the source of a fire
i am a single fire
[...]
i will be your heart now, to do your loving
love belongs to those who do the feeling.

life, as it stands so still along your fingers
beats in my hands, the hands i will, believing
that you have become she, who is not, any longer
somewhere in particular
[...]
love of my love, i am your breast
arm of my arm, i am your strength
breath of my breath, i am your foot
thigh of my thigh, back of my back
eye of my eye, beat of my beat
kind of my kind, i am your best
[...]
i will take your part now, to do your daring
lots belong to those who do the sharing.
i will be your fight now, to do your winning
[...]
we are together in my motion
you have wished us a bonded life