The thing that gets me is that sometimes people ask questions in the guise of getting to know you, but it’s clear they’re really just challenging you.
The thing that gets me is that sometimes people dismiss women’s poetry because it encompasses a whole range of human experience they just don’t have access to, and they feel that’s a threat to their perceived apexhood.
The thing that gets me is that I won’t ever stop adding poems like this to my April series until people no longer need to be educated about feminism, and not even then, because then everyone will just get it and the poems will be meaningful to them, too, and not just to some of us.
Why, look, it’s another poem I absolutely love!
I Am Not a Narrative for Your Entertainment
The male poet asks, Why are you single? What’s the narrative? like I’m a show he’s been meaning
to catch up on. The male poet says, Remember
the sexy poems you used to write? You’re not writing mommy poems now, are you? I want
to tell him even my mommy poems are too sexy
for him, especially too sexy. I know because
the tongues that have flickered over my C-section
incision have told me. My abdomen, like Zeus’s
head, has sprung warriors. And if that’s not sexy
then nothing goddamned is. I want to tell him
I’m single because I’m a beautiful disaster.
Not the Little Match Girl but the whole fireworks
factory ablaze. You can watch me burn for miles,
hear about it on the national news. My every move
is a trending topic on Facebook and Twitter.
You just didn’t know because you’d been blocked
from my universe.
***
Shaindel Beers is author of the poetry collections A Brief History of Time (Salt Publishing, 2009), The Children’s War and Other Poems (Salt, 2013), and Secure Your Own Mask (White Pine Press, 2018). Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She is currently an instructor of English at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, and serves as poetry editor of Contrary.
Let us not forget, in this time of recalling the story of the Nativity, the one very human person who made it all relatable to a human audience. Here: a soothing, musical meditation, dedicated to all the mothers who actually make Christmas happen in so many homes where emotional labors are left to women, either by necessity or by choice or by neglect. Merry Christmas to all of you, and to all of you.
It’s been a good Mother’s Day here. Very little work got done (by me, that is — the husband and kids cleaned up the gameroom in excellent fashion), but since I spent all of yesterday doing the author-in-public thing at a book festival (which was really, really good, by the way), I will not lament the fact that I spent much of the morning napping instead of editing and much of the afternoon hanging out with the extended family instead of folding laundry or posting pictures on Facebook of the excellent food other people prepared for me.
I did read a fabulous post by sj over at Insatiable Booksluts that I must share with you, though, because it’s about one of my all-time favorite heroines, Morticia Addams.
Enjoy. And if you love Morticia, leave a note here in the comments about why. I’d love to gush over her with you. You can even do this before you click on over to sj’s post.
In honor of Mother’s Day coming up this weekend (at least in the US, where I live), I’m giving away three copies of an excellent anthology I was fortunate to be included in, The Milk of Female Kindness–An Anthology of Honest Motherhood.
This book brings together women from many countries and cultures who have shared their writing and artwork on the theme of motherhood, and not just the concept of motherhood that mainstream media conditions us with. It’s an excellent, thoughtful project (and makes a wonderful Mother’s Day gift).
So how can you obtain one of the copies I’m giving away? Easy!
1. In the comments below, write about your mother or some other woman in your life who nurtured you in a maternal way. I’m interested in your stories. They can be funny, poignant, bizarre. The first three people to do this will win a copy. (And if you’re planning to give your prize as a Mother’s Day gift, then the sooner the better so I can mail it to you before Friday afternoon!)
2. Include your email address so I can contact you for your mailing address. (If I can’t contact you, I can’t send you a prize.)
3. Finally, watch this space, because I’ll be confirming the winners here in the comments section. (Added bonus: you get to read other people’s stories!)
Here is a list of some of the reviews that have come in so far for The Milk of Female Kindness. (I wrote “some” because I know there are other reviews out there that I don’t have listed here.)
I was so grateful to have my poems and essays included in this anthology. Kudos to Kasia James, the contributing editor whose brainchild it was, and to all the other authors and artists in it!
I can’t say why I really like this poem, but I just really do.
***
My Mother the Cow
The smell of a cow
Is like no other mammal.
She smells of warmth and grass,
Milk, hay and babies,
And home; like my mother.
The sway of a cow, like a weary woman,
Dugs swing like a plastic bag
Heavy with tins of rice pudding and creamy custard.
Mother’s milk, fresh not longlife, no tins,
from nipple to mouth; like my mother.
The cycle of fertility is
Beyond her control. At the farmer’s will,
Her fecund body produces
calf and milk, calf and milk,
Babies and milk; like my mother.
***
Author and journalist. Book lover. Tea drinker. Proud Yorkshirewoman. Sandra’s first novel Ignoring Gravity, about two sisters linked by a generation of secrets, is available now at Amazon. She is currently writing the second novel in the series about Rose Haldane: Identity Detective. In Connectedness, journalist Rose travels to Spain as she unravels the adoption story of famous artist Justine Tree. Can the truth be found in Justine’s art? For more information go to www.sandradanby.com.
By now you now that this week, my newest publication, Finis., launched. I’ve tried not to overwhelm the Interwebz with announcements of it, but I admit that Tuesday, Launch Day, I was online most of the day just trying to keep up with the traffic and buzz about it and reactions to it. It was a great day, and I’m so grateful to those of you who’ve already bought the book, read it, and given me reviews. I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far! (Links to places where Finis. is currently on sale appear at the end of this post.)
cover design by Lauren Volness
This Sunday is our official launch party, and if you’re in Houston that day, please feel free to drop by! It will be at The Black Labrador from 4:00-6:00 p.m. in their Churchill Room.
Finis. is an ebook only at this time, due to its length, but there will be copies of an anthology I was recently published in, The Milk of Female Kindness — An Anthology of Honest Motherhood, for sale at the launch party. This wonderful international project brought together authors from all over the world; the book contains poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, and artwork around the theme of motherhood and offers a wide variety of perspectives. (It also contains two of my essays and three of my poems.)
Here is a list of some of the reviews that have come in so far for The Milk of Female Kindness. (I wrote “some” because I know there are other reviews out there that I don’t have listed here.)
I was so grateful to be included in this anthology; it really is an excellent publication. Kudos to Kasia James, the contributing editor whose brainchild it was, and to all the other authors and artists in it!
***
As promised, here are links to buy Finis. More retailers will be coming available soon, and when they are, I’ll be sure to let you know!
Finis. is also available through Apple’s iBooks store, but be sure you get the title that has my name attached to it, or you might end up with some very different literature you weren’t necessarily looking for!
Sappho's Torque 