Poems from the Women's Movement

by Honor Moore (Editor)

“In 1965, Sylvia Plath’s posthumous  Ariel  took the literary world by storm with its fierce and undeniably female voice. For the next 15 years, America saw a historic outpouring of women’s poetry supported by and supporting the women’s movement. As editor Moore points out, poetry was vital to the movement, articulating previously unexpressed lives, empowering others as the poets found their own power. . . . And all who missed these missiles and epistles then will find them still demanding and invigorating.”— Booklist  (starred review)

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.” These lines by Muriel Rukeyser epitomize the spirit that animated a whole generation of women poets, from the 1960s to the 1980s, who in exploring the unspoken truths of their lives sparked a literary revolution. Honor Moore’s anthology presents fifty-eight poets whose work defines an era, among them Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Sonia Sanchez, May Swenson, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Anne Waldman, Sharon Olds, Diane Di Prima, Lucille Clifton, Judy Grahn, Alice Notley, and Eileen Myles. Here is a fresh and revelatory look at a crucial time in American poetry that presents the full range of its themes and approaches and a generous sampling of its most compelling voices.

About the American Poets Project
Elegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today’s most discerning poets and critics.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, Womens, Nonfiction, History, Gender, Anthologies

200 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 2009

About the author

Honor Moore is the author of Our Revolution; The Bishop’s Daughter, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; The White Blackbird, a New York Times Notable Book; and three poetry collections. A professor at the New School, she lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Kimber · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very likely that the women's movement truly began in literature and poetry for when women had the power and ability to put pen to paper is where we began to get free.

The famous lines by Muriel Rukeyser, "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?"

(Foretelling the words "me too" by Turana Burke in 2006)

Answer: "the world would split open"

[Elevate Difference · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s debatable whether collections of work by “women poets” (or, shudder, “poetesses”) are legitimate groupings. I tend to regard these types of collections with a raised eyebrow, imagining a group of women having an outdoor party, having been shut out of some stuffy jackets-required club, now herded together and pushed through the doors all at once to their dismay. But in Poems from the Women's Movement, the poems are linked with a real thread, a socio-political movement, making this anthology a historical, artistic, and literary record of the consciousness of the movement in both its broadness and diversity.

In a concise, warm introduction that places the poems in a context of not just the movement, but the greater American poetry landscape, Editor Honor Moore, explains that the scope of the volume begins with Plath, whose posthumous Ariel was published in 1966, and ends with the early 1980s. The first poem in the volume, Plath’s “The Applicant,” is a shudder-inducing representation of what the movement fought against: the repeated manipulation of a woman-object in morphing professional and marital tests ending with a repetition of “marry it, marry it, marry it” that is frightening as hell.

With anthologies always come quibbles of overrepresentation or exclusion (and those more widely read than I can take it up below in the comments), but the former doesn’t seem possible with this smallish volume—under 250 pages all told—and it seems that Moore has taken great care to include poems on diverse topics and poets with varied perspectives. There are poems on previously taboo subjects like abortion, pregnancy, and rape, as well as those that arise from a collective female and simply human conscience.

Marge Piercy, whose “Secretary Chant” is anthologized all over, is represented not by that poem, but by the more serious “Rape Poem” and the resonant “The Nuisance”—“I want you to want me/as simply and variously/as a cup of hot coffee.” This theme, the want of a woman to be wanted—probably a want of men, too, but perhaps they’re historically less likely to say it—and a can’t live with/without ’em scenario also appears in Maureen Owen’s “Wanting You”: “this need I have to sleep beside you / that has caused all the trouble in my life.” And I can’t stop thinking about the feeling of collective motherhood expressed in Audre Lorde’s “To My Daughter the Junkie on the Train”:

Little girl on the nod
if we are measured by dreams we avoid
then you are the nightmare of all sleeping mothers
. . .
My corrupt concern will not replace
what you once needed

Reading the poems in this volume feels familial: the secrets and stories within them are directly responsible and continue to nurture the privileges I exercise today, without serious conflict, as a woman, writer, wife, and mother. This great little volume is well designed and full of wisdom, and I’m thankful to have it in hand.

Review by Jonelle Seitz

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this small collection of poetry. I had not previously contemplated the movement through the lens of poetry, nor considered its impact on the movement. The poems are very diverse and provide a quick snapshot into each one's historic moment in time.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.” ~ Muriel Rukeyser

In this collection of poetry, one woman doesn’t tell the truth about her life. Many women do.

And if the poets represented in this collection aren’t speaking about personal experience, they’re writing about the collective experience of so many women throughout the generations.

These poems are raw but truthful. Uncomfortable but honest. They take no prisoners and have a no-holds-barred mentality. They deal with subjects that today are still, in some circles, taboo to discuss.

This is not an easy collection of poems to read, but for those interested in women’s history and women writers, it’s a worthy one.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the past few years I've been trying to explore the poetry genre a bit more. Poems from the Women's Movement, edited by Honor Moore seemed like a good book to try as it contains poetry from a number of women poets.

For the most part I found the poems accessible (a big thing for me as I normally struggle get the themes and ideas being presented) and some caused quite visceral reactions. Poems like 'a poem for my father' by Sonia Sanchez, 'rape poem' by Marge Piercy, 'First Time: 1950' by the editor, Honor Black were very powerful. I found Alice Walker's 'For My Sister Molly Who in the Fifties' very touching.

Rape poem was like a punch in the gut.

"The is no difference between being raped
and being pushed down a flight of concrete steps
except that the wounds also bleed inside.

There is no difference between being raped
and being run over by a truck
except that afterward men ask if you enjoyed it.

There is no difference between being raped
and being bit on the ankle by a rattlesnake
except that people ask if your skirt was short
and why you were out alone anyway......" excerpt of Rape Poem by Marge Piercy

There is such a variety of contributors, Lucille Clifton, Erica Jong, Rita Mae Brown, Alice Walker, Audrey Lorde, Sylvia Plath, Alice Notley and on and on. So many varied styles and themes. The collection is part of the Library of Congress's American Poet Project. I'm glad that I tried this. (4.0 stars)

One other excerpt for you -

Ten Commandments for Liberation

1. though shalt clean up thine own messes.
no servants whether paid (cleaning ladies)
or indentured (wives)
2. thou shalt not use other people. as tome
hayden used james rector to advertise
people's park, as marxists use workers
to overthro the ruling class, as i just
used tom hayden for demonstration purposes.
3. thou shalt not foul the air, with motor
vehicles, the water, with detergents,
the earth, with chemicals and pesticides.
4. thou shalt not deny any person's
humanity. blacks are not niggers, vietnamese
are not gooks, women are not chicks,
cops are not pigs.
5. thou shalt not endanger other people
for an idea.
6. thou shalt not be ashamed, we are all
perverts. we all have pasts we could spend
our lives denying.
7. thou shalt revel in what you really are:
don't change your looks, don't stop
talking, go ahead and be.
8. listen to your body: it will let you
know whether or not you are content
9. living things shall be allowed to
breathe & grow.
10. write your own commandments. i am only
a person like you. "burn this
& memorize yourself."

poem by Alta (words to live by)

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, my humble observations on books of poetry are confined to what I like, and there is certainly much to enjoy in Honor Moore’s anthology of almost 100 poems by 58 poets written between the 1960s and the 1980s. One must likely assume, however, that this collection is the small tip of a very large iceberg.

Poems From the Women’s Movement explores the range of human senses and emotions through the lenses of women’s eyes—heartache, wretchedness, and trauma; rumination, contemplation, and thoughtful analysis; mirth and merriment; anger, passion, and bitterness; and often, a wistful melancholy for an imagined future.

Long, multipart verses challenge my attention span, whereas the four-liners are delightful, as in Elsa Gidlow’s:

You say I am mysterious.
Let me explain myself:
In a land of oranges
I am faithful to apples.

Ellen Myles’s poem about the public burning of Joan of Arc is dramatic, stunning, and leaves one breathless.

She was 19 years old
when they burned her body in the middle of town
while she was still alive. A white dove
came out of her mouth as she died.

Marge Piercy’s quiet and gritty “Rape Poem” is full of fear and helpless warnings, and is terrifying in its authenticity.

There is no difference between being raped
and being run over by a truck
except that afterward men ask if you enjoyed it.

And though a chuckle is difficult to suppress in Susan Griffin’s “An Answer to a Man’s Question, ‘What Can I Do About Women’s Liberation?’ ” the biting sarcasm is pointedly effective as it begins:

Wear a dress.
Wear a dress that you made yourself, or bought in a dress store.
Wear a dress and underneath the dress wear elastic around
Your hips, and underneath your nipples.

And ends with:

…be humble and wear your dress and your smile, and don’t talk
back, keep your dress on, cook more nice dinners, stay
away from Telegraph Avenue, and still, you won’t know the
half of it, not in a million years.

Moore’s anthology is well worth reading for its enduring importance and for the immediate impact it will undoubtedly have on readers.

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems from the Women's Movement came out eight years ago, but I wasn't in any rush to read it, because the title made me think it collected work by second-wave activists—i.e., mostly amateur poets. That turned out not to be the case at all! Instead, this book is filled with the writing of women who changed the face of poetry as activists were changing the place of women in the larger world: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Alice Walker, and many other well-known poets grace its pages, and the poems chosen are mostly excellent. I was excited to get a sampling of some poets I've always meant to read, including Sonia Sanchez, Eileen Myles, and Muriel Rukeyser. In college, my twin sister was obsessed with Judy Grahn's epic 20-page poem "A Woman Is Talking to Death," and I was glad to see it here where I could finally experience it for myself (verdict: it was really good, if disturbing). Most happily, I discovered some poets I really want to read more of, particularly Maxine Kumin and Denise Levertov. I would have given this collection five stars, except there was a strange dropoff in quality as the book neared its end. Those poets were less well-known than the ones from earlier in the volume, and frankly I can see why. I would still recommend this to any poetry lover who wants to get an overview of a notably revolutionary moment in American letters.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really a wonderful collection, I'm glad I read it. Because of the title, I was half-expecting something akin to a collection of protest chants, which was stupid of me. Instead it is really a rich selection, many by poets I recognized, but certainly plenty I did not as well. Happy to encounter both the work by poets I already admired and those whose names were not familiar. Go see if your library has it, you'll be glad you did.

I came across this book because I'm following a Facebook group about Druid Heights, the "unintentional community" Elsa Gidlow co-founded near Muir Woods in Marin County (the website is about trying to save the remarkable structures there from neglect by the Park Service, to preserve the wonderful history of the place for future visitors). Anyway, I thought I'd try to track down some of her work at the local library here in Ohio, and the only thing they had was the one poem of her included in this book. Looks like I'll have to wait until I get back to California to track down more of her work, but for now, I'm glad she led me to this book. Here's the four-line poem included here:

You say I am mysterious.
Let me explain myself:
In a land of oranges
I am faithful to apples.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about/her life?
The world would split open”
These lines from Muriel Rukeyser sum up the anthology. Honor Moore has gathered work that “seeks to mark how women poets made a poetry that, in two decades, altered the face of American poetry forever.” (from the introduction). The issues the poems speak to are as broad as the issues of the 60s and 70s, reflective of the huge cultural changes sweeping through America. Many of us marched in protest and solidarity, advocating for equal rights, for recognition and acknowledgment of our very existence. This collection contains the lived history of the women’s movement. Reading these poems as one unit, one collection, is a stunning, overwhelming experience. Passion and conviction rise from the pages like a heat wave.

As Michelle Cliff concludes her poem “Women’s Work:”
There’s a need for rage in this work.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another of my favorites in poetry dept. If you're a Baby Boomer and/or feminist, this will truly speak to you Have used some of these poems as writing prompts.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another book required for my literature class.

I enjoyed the poems in this book that recognizes women from all over the world and does not discriminate gender orientation. Honor Moore selected poems, by women, that reflect three decades of historical and cultural shifts. The voices of women are riddled with various themes, including gender preferences, life, death, inner thoughts, etc., through generations. The poems are still relevant today, and speaks volumes in how far women have come in society, and the struggles that still remain.

[Ethan Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating views on feminine issues! This series of poems elucidates, in feminine discourse, the nuance and breadth of theory that constitutes a potent New Historicism view on power relations regarding patriarchy and women's bodies; as, the former sought to maintain dominance over the subject-polity composing the group, categorized by sovereign power, as ladies. Additionally, the tone was often parodying of public preconceptions of the character "woman." The laughs were welcome: The poignant assertions were edifying.

[sevdah]

A collection of poems written between the 60s to the 80s by women who had just started realizing gender oppression and had just started picking their battles.
Do not just keep this book on your shelves, opening up here and there at random (as I did for nearly ten years). It's better experienced as a whole, maybe consumed in a single afternoon, to allow it to make its point.

(One of the points being, stuff can be funny, I thank you for that especially, Honor Moore)

[Sophia A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read every poem in this collection, because it was quite dense, but I read most of them. The forward was fascinating, I love the idea that "the women's movement WAS poetry". I think there was a wonderful variety of authors, styles, and subject matter that came together beautifully. If you read it for more than twenty minutes at a time, you settle into a lovely rhythm, breezing through pages and pages and nodding along in agreement.

[Spencer Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry is not always my thing, but the content and imagination behind these poems seemed imperative, and kept my attention solidly held over the couple of days I read them

Some poems went over my head no matter how many times I reread them, but others hit me where it hurt

A very important book that helps understand the role poetry played as a catalyst in the women’s movement of the 60-70s.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems of their time, with some timeless truth for readers of any era. Honor Moore's introduction on the period and the work is good, and ends with the all too often overlooked Jane Cooper. Highly recommend Cooper's essay "Nothing was used in the manufacture of this poetry that could have been used in the manufacture of bread" about art and women's lives. You can find the essay in Flashboat, her collected poems, or possibly online. Also worth reading with Of Woman Born by Adrienne Rich (Cooper quoted there to great effect) or Silences by Tillie Olsen.

[Sarah Remsing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed a lot of the poems in here, though as you might imagine there are a lot of triggering themes. I found it interesting the author of the collection included her own work in the middle, I personally thought it would have made a good preface, or even ending.

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a delightful collection of poems to leaf through. Featuring various different poets, including Audre Lorde, Louise Gluck, and Honor Moore herself, we are invited into a world of women's literature where no topic is off limits.

[Desiree · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great collection! I've found some great poets to read more of and learned more about what I like and what I don't in poetry. These women are ferocious for writing what they were when they were.

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of anger and frustration expressed in these poems, among with a heavy dose of sexual awareness and choice.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful book to read while walking through the woods with your sweetie <3
some empowering, some moving, some strange

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I could read this 1,000 times and still enjoy each read. A great selection of poems.

[Tabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the title as: poetry by women, from this time period.

[Charles Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection and highly informative introduction. I had read several of the poets before, but seeing their works in this context was eye-opening and powerful.

[Marilyn]

Copy a few poems into PLH docs

[Fish Food · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING!! all of the greats are in here!! these poems are organised in a very cool way.

[hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful powerful poetry read over the course of a couple months. definitely worth picking up

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of these poems really resonated with me. I found some new poets to invest my time in.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading these poems is like taking a walk through history. How it once seemed so revolutionary to read a poem about a woman's body or from a woman's point of view. It was exhilarating to realize that there was an ocean of shared experiences among us and that we could define ourselves rather than be defined by others. An excellent selection of poetry that still shimmers with the energy of that time, when poetry announced the vanguard, the next stage of women, who would smash stereotypes and expect everything from life. The poems don't speak to me with quite the same urgency that they did when I discovered some of them in college, but then, what does? I borrowed this via inter-library loan from another library, but I want to buy it and pull it out and remember anger and power and what it was like to be young and hopeful.
---
After rereading this in August 2016, I'm more impressed by the selections made by editor Moore. She identified important poets in the broader sense as well as those who helped define the women's movement.

[giuseppe manley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read nearly enough women, though that isn't necessarily the reason I picked this up. I had never seen these LOA published American Poets Project series books and they are quite stylish. My only complaint was that, in a book like this, the lack of dates after respective poems could be a bit disorienting.

For this relatively brief anthology, the uniformity of purpose was both a boon and limiting factor. Honor Moore was able to collect some really tremendous work, but I also felt that some of the poets I was already familiar with had stronger work that wouldn't necessarily have fit in thematically, or could think of a few poets that would have felt at home alongside these others but couldn't necessarily fit the neat and easy label.

Still, a great read, at times very enjoyable and at other times very unpleasant, but usually whichever it intended to be.