Loose Leaf Notes

Yes. Definitely.

i have one to add....shame of breastfeeding, due to the recent news of a nursing mom getting kicked off of an airline flight. someone even had the gall to say she was only nursing b/c she liked exposing herself in public.......huh? i really like the poem....and very true- someone always thinks you should be doing something differently, especially when you are a mom, it seems....and they think it's their responsibility to tell you. good luck at your reading tonight!!!

Thanks! This is a poem that is fun to read with another. In the past, Katherine and I read the alternating lines while Jayn moved to it. I also read it years ago at an open mic at Eden Fest and afterwards another woman poet came up and said "You Go Girl!" It was the first time I had heard the saying...it was new at the time.

Another time, when the Appalachian Woman's Caravan came through Floyd and did readings at a local restaurant, and it was my turn to read, the room was noisy and not many were paying attention. I spoke into the mic, "Now I'm going to talk about SEX," and everyone dropped their forks and closed their mouths. (The first line had the word sex in it so it qualified.)

I thought it was awful about the woman getting kicked off the plane for breastfeeding! Shame of breastfeeding has the opposite element too. I bet some women who choose to feed their babies with formula also feel some shame.

You could go on forever: shame of being too fat, shame of being too thin...it's all about accepting outselves first, I guess!

I like this poem and you could go on.
I think it is unreal the story about the breastfeeding Mom. Why can't people just mind their own business.
The world is becoming to un-natural!!!!

Wish I could be there to hear you! The poem is bittersweet.

Susan

Dress up and c'mon over and have a couple of glasses of Dom and giggles :-)

This is kind of a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" situation, and I have known women on both sides of every issue.

Michele sent me tonight.

Nodding throughout. I was very happy to see full acceptance earlier today when someone in my mixed-gender critique group very tastefully (for the baby, too, I'm sure!) breastfed her new daughter while listening to our critique of her story. This poem makes me think also of Marge Piercy's "For Strong Women"
http://www.breakoutofthebox.com/strongwomen.htm
-- especially her section that reads, "A strong woman is a woman in whose head/a voice is repeating, I told you so,/ugly, bad girl, bitch, nag, shrill, witch,/ballbuster, nobody will ever love you back,/why aren't you feminine, why aren't/you soft, why aren't you quiet, why aren't you dead?"

Wow,that's powerful stuff! I enjoyed reading Marge Piercy's memoir "Sleeping with Cats."

I started to get cold feet about reading that poem in mixed public tonight, but I did and it really was the right venue for it, a celebration of women in the arts. I'll be posting some wild photos sometime tomorrow!

LOVE that poem Colleen...And I can certainly relate...You write so beautifully and convey so very much with just a few words...AMAZING, my dear!
Hope it went well....!

Poignant words. Thank goodness, the older I get, the less shame I feel.. but there was a time I felt many of these.

These are all so true. We walk on a fine tightrope, betwixt and between, teetering at best....sometimes a Catch 22 ...no win. Interesting.
We shouldn't buy into this but we so often do.

Love the We'moon. Been keeping my eye on them since college...

-TL

And isn't it odd that all of us (women)has some part of that poem hit home with us? What a shame!