Women that want...
A Friday round up of poetry dripping in desire...
It appears that I wasn’t alone in finding the words of
last week completely ravishing. Understanding our wants, and how they might be linked to our cycles, was the topic of choice. If you missed it, can I recommend that you return for a read here?And of course I loved collating a few poems on this theme for a Friday Round Up.
These are fiery and so damn delicious they make my jaw ache.
What Do Women Want by Kim Addonizio, via The Poetry Foundation.
liking things, by from the brilliant collection, bone.
Want, by from another great collection, Instructions for Travelling West.
To Take Back a Life by from the collection, What Kind of Woman.
Mary Oliver, If I Wanted a Boat, by Mary Oliver from the collection, Blue Horses.
I could go on.
Some changes coming up for next week. More on that shortly.
But for now, do tell me if you tried the writing prompt? Were you able to tap into where those wants were coming from?
Or even just let me know which of the poems above you like most.
Nelly x
Thank you Nelly for these poems! <3 I love them all, especially the Yrsa Daley-Ward one. Reminds me of a couple of my girlfriends! "Wearing nothing but lipstick the color of desire". So great!
This weeks collection reminded me of a poem(prose poem?) I wrote on the similar topic, goes like this:
I could slide down this stone staircase, like her favorite cloth. Face, dress, body and all. Hair would follow, I would flow down the stone, rounded and warm from the summer day. I could take a stroll down my own clavicles, on my tiptoes like a dancer, deliver this body wrapped in a dress like a gift.
I could. But I am not going to.
Instead I sit on the staircase, supple and soft. Sipping on wine and glances of people wondering. My left shoe already lost to the abyss, of just one step below. Palm fallen, giddy from the perfume. I think of my mother, and how she could only ever yearn for words spoken by dead poets.
I adore all those poems so much! Kim Addonizio and Kate Baer are always winners ❤️
This was an extremely quick and rough first draft, but I loved Steph’s prompt and I love Steph’s collection too! 😍🩸
Day 15
I want hands in my hair,
tongue on my skin.
To feel every nerve ending
fizzing with possibility.
I learnt to let go of the shame
a long time ago: the boys
who coveted and derided
my sexuality as a teenager
hardened me to all the accusations
of “Slut!” which would be thrown
my way over the years.
I wear my desire as a badge
now; a sign of my carnal human self
proclaiming
I am alive
I am alive
I am alive.