What Do Women Want?

The eternal question, huh? I, being a woman, don't know either. Great poem though by Kim Addonizio though. I love when a poem ends with a smack and this one certainly does.

What Do Women Want?

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

The Duality of Man or Woman, in this case

Emily Dickinson has much to do with why I love poetry today. This poem deals with the difficulties of conflicting feelings or thoughts, some which may even be harmful, but are nonetheless hard to let go of, because they are still part of what makes you you. I love it.

Me from Myself -- to banish –
Had I Art –
Impregnable my Fortress
Unto All Heart --
But since Myself -- assault Me –
How have I peace
Except by subjugating
Consciousness?And since We're mutual Monarch
How this be
Except by Abdication
–Me -- of Me?

-Emily Dickinson

Siren Song

Margaret Atwood, is one of my favorite novelists as well as poets. Her writing contains a strong feminist sensibility. I suggest checking out books such as Cat's Eye and A Handmaid's Tales for great prose. I like this poem because it describes itself while it becomes what it is. The reader is as much a sucker as the men the siren lures. Good stuff.

Siren Song

by Margaret Atwood

This is the one song everyone

would like to learn: the song

that is irresistible:

the song that forces men

to leap overboard in squadron

seven though they see beached skulls

the song nobody knows

because anyone who had heard it

is dead, and the others can’t remember.

Shall I tell you the secret

and if I do, will you get me

out of this bird suit?

I don’t enjoy it here

squatting on this island

looking picturesque and mythical

with these two feathery maniacs,

I don’t enjoy singing

this trio, fatal and valuable.

I will tell the secret to you,

to you, only to you.

Come closer. This song

is a cry for help: Help me!

Only you, only you can,

you are unique

at last. Alas

it is a boring song

but it works every time.

One Art

One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop, is one of my favorite poems written in one of my favorite forms, the villanelle. I lost a job today that I wanted to keep-- or rather-- I gave it up for other things, but it stings a bit. Not so much as losing a someone, of course, but the poem has been in my head at any rate.

One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day.
Accept the flusterof lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel.
None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea live

What a beautiful face I have found in this place that is circling all around the sun...

Neutral Milk Hotel, a little band from Ruston, LA fronted by the uniquely talented, Jeff Mangum, that made a big stir in the world of indie music. One of my all time favorite bands and one of my favorite songs. Unfortunately this is the second and final album made by the band. This album always reminds me of September and September always feels so full of promise. The weather changes; school begins; there is the promise of possibilities. The music and the month both fill me with nostalgia and excitement.

Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all...