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Full Belly: Poems
Full Belly is the second chapbook from poet Maegen McAuliffe O’Leary to dredge the dark underside of the feminine experience. Womanhood is explored as a ceaseless battle for sovereignty; motherhood is portrayed as a gut-wrenching cycle of birth, death, and rebirth; and creative expression appears as a symbiotic dance between the sacred and the profane. McAuliffe O'Leary's ferocious pacing and confessional style rip through the pages, with self-reflective poems on miscarriage, mothering, religion, forgiveness, and a poet's relentless quest for creative regeneration. Featuring viral poem "What I Would Tell Eve", Full Belly is a throat-punching, heart-grasping, poetic journey that will leave readers "with a full belly / knowing more than God".
Poetry for real life, in real life.
Maegen McAuliffe O'Leary is a poet and mother from the Pacific Northwest. Her work focuses on the intersection of feminism, matrimony, motherhood, magic, and the human body and its place in nature. Her poems featured most recently in publications from Querencia Press, Nymeria Publishing, Taboo Tribune, and Quail Bell Magazine. Her debut chapbook, Bodies to Bury the Hunger (2022), is available from Bottlecap Press.
McAuliffe O'Leary is the founder of The Finished Project, a creative communications company inspired by the sacred feminine powers of creativity, courage, compassion, and communication. The Finished Project supports living artists and women-owned, small business through an online retail platform that promotes poetry for real life, in real life. Visit TheFinishedProject.org to shop and learn more.
Poetry for real life, in real life.
Maegen McAuliffe O'Leary is a poet and mother from the Pacific Northwest. Her work focuses on the intersection of feminism, matrimony, motherhood, magic, and the human body and its place in nature. Her poems featured most recently in publications from Querencia Press, Nymeria Publishing, Taboo Tribune, and Quail Bell Magazine. Her debut chapbook, Bodies to Bury the Hunger (2022), is available from Bottlecap Press.
McAuliffe O'Leary is the founder of The Finished Project, a creative communications company inspired by the sacred feminine powers of creativity, courage, compassion, and communication. The Finished Project supports living artists and women-owned, small business through an online retail platform that promotes poetry for real life, in real life. Visit TheFinishedProject.org to shop and learn more.
- GenresPoetry
37 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2024
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Maegen McAuliffe O’Leary
3 books1 followerPoetry for real life, in real life.
Maegen McAuliffe O'Leary is a poet and mother from the Pacific Northwest. Her work focuses on the contemporary human experience as it intersects feminism, matrimony, motherhood, magic, creativity, and the human body and its place in nature. She is the author of Bodies to Bury the Hunger (Bottlecap Press, 2022); Full Belly: Poems (The Finished Project, 2024); Richest Bastard in the Poorhouse: Poems for the Proletariat (The Finished Project, 2025); and Stuffed: Love Poems for Assholes (The Finished Project, 2025).
McAuliffe O'Leary is the founder of The Finished Project, a creative communications company inspired by the sacred feminine forces of creativity, courage, compassion, and communication. The Finished Project supports living artists and women-owned, small business through an online retail platform that promotes poetry for real life, in real life. Visit TheFinishedProject.org to learn more.
Maegen McAuliffe O'Leary is a poet and mother from the Pacific Northwest. Her work focuses on the contemporary human experience as it intersects feminism, matrimony, motherhood, magic, creativity, and the human body and its place in nature. She is the author of Bodies to Bury the Hunger (Bottlecap Press, 2022); Full Belly: Poems (The Finished Project, 2024); Richest Bastard in the Poorhouse: Poems for the Proletariat (The Finished Project, 2025); and Stuffed: Love Poems for Assholes (The Finished Project, 2025).
McAuliffe O'Leary is the founder of The Finished Project, a creative communications company inspired by the sacred feminine forces of creativity, courage, compassion, and communication. The Finished Project supports living artists and women-owned, small business through an online retail platform that promotes poetry for real life, in real life. Visit TheFinishedProject.org to learn more.
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October 23, 2025Full Belly: Poems is a throat-punching, heart-grasping poetic journey into the dark underworld of the feminine experience. Featuring viral poem "What I Would Tell Eve", this second chapbook from poet Maegen McAuliffe O'Leary explores womanhood as a ceaseless battle for sovereignty. McAuliffe O'Leary's ferocious pacing and confessional style rip through the pages, with self-reflective poems on the symbiotic dance between the sacred and the profane, as played out across gut-churning cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. Full Belly: Poems is a relentless quest for creative regeneration that will leave its readers "with a full belly / knowing more than God". Poetry for real life, in real life. Maegen McAuliffe O'Leary is a poet and mother from the Pacific Northwest. Her work focuses on the intersection of feminism, matrimony, motherhood, magic, and the human body and its place in nature. Her poems featured most recently in publications from Querencia Press, Nymeria Publishing, Taboo Tribune, and Quail Bell Magazine. Her debut chapbook, Bodies to Bury the Hunger (2022), is available from Bottlecap Press. McAuliffe O'Leary is the founder of The Finished Project, a creative communications company inspired by the sacred feminine powers of creativity, courage, compassion, and communication. The Finished Project supports living artists and women-owned, small business through an online retail platform that promotes poetry for real life, in real life. Visit TheFinishedProject.org to shop and learn more.
March 17, 2025
A chapbook of poems about the body, identity, living in a female body, survival, and desire.
from What I Would Tell Eve: "Eat the fucking apple. / They are going to blame you / regardless. // You might as well go to the gallows / with a full belly / knowing more than God."
from The Damn Birds Are At It Again: " Surely, this [is] how women lose themselves - // open the door and start letting in / any old voice for a chat. / Surely, this is what gets us burned - // staying still too long, listening too ferociously, / baring teeth without a smile."
from Absolution: "Maybe // next time you offer to buy me / a drink, I still don't take it. / But I tell you hey / I wasn't thirsty // anyway, I drank / all the water / instead of letting it pass / under the bridge."
from What I Would Tell Eve: "Eat the fucking apple. / They are going to blame you / regardless. // You might as well go to the gallows / with a full belly / knowing more than God."
from The Damn Birds Are At It Again: " Surely, this [is] how women lose themselves - // open the door and start letting in / any old voice for a chat. / Surely, this is what gets us burned - // staying still too long, listening too ferociously, / baring teeth without a smile."
from Absolution: "Maybe // next time you offer to buy me / a drink, I still don't take it. / But I tell you hey / I wasn't thirsty // anyway, I drank / all the water / instead of letting it pass / under the bridge."
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