Anna Hepworth’s Reviews > My Life, My Body > Status Update

'Nice words for ugly acts' - poem mixing death and loss of jobs, and executives deliberate ignorance.
'Why Speculate on the future?' - essay. starts gently, then heads straight in to discussion of feminist futures and utopias. Not all the way through this one at present.

'Touched by Ginsberg at a (relatively) tender age" - essay on escaping the safety of poetry as taught at university, and becoming a better poet.
'Tabula Rasa with Boobs" - essay on Marilyn Monroe, and the complexities of having one's body desired but one's self neither desired nor respected.

'Housewives without houses' - essay on the invisible homeless, and the way that society is failing them.
"The hows, there is no why" - poem about finding food while homeless.
"Living off the grid" - interview (interviewer, Terry Bisson).

'Statement on censorship for the Pennsylvania Review" - what it says in the title. Artists who censor themselves; those who only look at 'comfortable' works or works by the Establishment lessen art.
"Fame, Fortune, and other Tawdry Illusions" - essay on being recognised; on being famous in public and the kinds of attention it gets from people who don't like it.

'What they call acts of God' - poem. Railing against corporate greed.Not strong on poetic language or meter; more verse essay.

'Gentrification and its Discontents" - horribly depressing roll call of cheap and friendly places Piercy has lived which have since been gentrified.

'Headline: Lawmaker destroys shopping carts' - poem about the conservative agenda.

'The more we see, the less we know' - short essay making commentary on US presidents, and what it appears to be that appeals, compared to the historical record.

This is the 15th book in the 'Outspoken Authors' series, if the list at the front is in publication order. This is the second of the series I've read, and only the second of Piercy's work, so I have no idea what I'm getting myself in for.