isn’t the story better embellished
I soul, dark doll, write so I will no longer be defined by the few, any few
and there are works awaiting exact definition by a woman for the first time
I felt a cleaving in my mind
as if my Brain had split
learning you eat raw onions; learning your taste
for obscurity
was it yesterday we shifted the air and made it blossom
I insist on vegetating here
I have broken and entered poetry’s house, where have they
hidden the valuables?
the risk’s as great in loving as it is
in voting
a shy freedom draws her, her hobbled step
frees her
two queer people in a corner in skinny jeans
and just enough of purple in their hair wink at you
our desire is that we want to talk of really important things,
and words come so slowly
come in the curve of the lion’s bulging stomach
lie for a season out of the judging rain
never to despise in myself what I have been taught
to despise. Not to despise the other
people protest in sprawling lightless ways
against their deceivers, they are never meek
___________________________
Robin Becker, “Summer’s Tale” Domain of Perfect Affection
Alice Notley, “Dante’s Ass a Nobel Prize” Disobedience
Emily Dickinson, “867” Helen Vendler’s Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries
U.A. Fanthorpe, “7301” Super Gay Poems
Sonia Sanchez, “short poem 3” Collected Poems
Rosemary Tonks, “Dressing-gown Olympian” Bedoin of the London Evening
Wanda Coleman, “Intruder” Bathwater Wine
Bernadette Mayer, “A Woman I Mix Men Up” A Bernadette Mayer Reader
Jean Valentine, “Osip Mandelstam: 394” The Messenger
Stephanie Chan, “You Throw a Party and Everyone You Have Ever Been Attracted to is There” Super Gay Poems
Judy Grahn, “Talkers in a Dream Doorway” the Queen of Swords
Audre Lorde, “Meet” The Collected Poems
Muriel Rukeyser, “Despisals” Breaking Open
Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Womanhood XIV” Selected Poems
link to video
Ellen Miller-Mack's new book When I Was a Grateful Mammal is the winner of the 2025 Sappho’s Prize in Poetry. She’s a nurse practitioner (retired/rewired) with an MFA in Poetry from Drew University. Her book reviews have appeared in Rattle, Valparaiso, Bookslut, the Rumpus, the Poetry Cafe, and the Poetry Foundation. Her poems have appeared in Lavender Review (journal and anthology January 2025), Lily Poetry Review, Antiphon, 5 A.M., Redheaded Stepchild, Affilia, and The Lake Rises: poems to and for our bodies of water. Ellen co-wrote The Real Cost of Prisons Comix (PM Press) and the comic books are downloadable free at https://www.realcostofprisons.org/comics.html. She is the host of Poet Talk, a live radio program on WMUA (www.wmua.org) which is also a podcast on Spotify and Apple. If you are a poet living in Western Massachusetts or close enough to drive to Amherst, get in touch with Ellen at emillermack@gmail.com.
