Written In Red: Selected Poems

by Voltairine de Cleyre

18 poems from American anarchism's outstanding poet - 13 that originally appeared in Mother Earth - 5 anthologized for the first time herein. It includes several of her Haymarket poems, as well as moving tributes to feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, John Peter Altgeld and the Mexican Revolution. In an informative introduction, surrealist poet and labor historian Franklin Rosemont salutes the 'irreducible rage against stifling conventions', the 'free-spirited, no compromise, daredevil intensity' and the 'hauntingly wild and violent lyricism' that are the hallmarks of De Cleyre's poetry - and indeed, of her life.

Genres: Poetry

52 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

About the author

Voltairine de Cleyre was an American anarchist writer and feminist. She was a prolific writer and speaker, opposing the state, marriage, and the domination of religion in sexuality and women's lives. She began her activist career in the freethought movement. De Cleyre was initially drawn to individualist anarchism but evolved through mutualism to an "anarchism without adjectives." She believed that any system was acceptable as long as it did not involve force. However, according to anarchist author Iain McKay, she embraced the ideals of stateless communism.[1] She was a colleague of Emma Goldman, with whom she maintained a relationship of respectful disagreement on many issues. Many of her essays were in the Collected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre, published posthumously by Mother Earth in 1914.

Reviews

[Christopher Pyrdsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this. I've read it so many times. Voltairine wasn’t just writing poems, these were straight-up fighting words. She was bleeding anarchy and rebellion all over the page. Her lines are sharp but there’s this weird tenderness underneath it all. You can still feel that raw hunger for real freedom, justice, and truth...it’s happening right now, and a hundred years ago. This isn’t the kind of poetry that makes you feel cozy or safe. But honestly, why would it be?

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”

[T. Smith]

Excellent introduction by the late Franklin Rosemont.

[for-much-deliberation ...]

http://www.voltairine.org/poems.php