Girls

I wrote this poem this year after reading Allen Ginsberg’s, “Howl”. If you aren't familiar with it, I highly suggest you read it. His writing struck me, and I had not written a poem with such long lines, so I decided to try it. It has gained some attention at University, as I often read it at poetry readings or Feminist events. A few girls have asked me about it, so I thought I would share it here and provide a few notes on this poem means to me.

1. This poem contains a lot about the power of speaking, and the language of girls. The “ribbon, rose, sage, spine, shutter, selenite, window blind” is repetitive phrasing that is spell-like and protective. Ribbon ties, sage neutralizes, shutter closes, selenite also neutralizes, and window blinds also close off unwanted eyes / protect. I see these words as protective and have come to chant them when I feel I need protection, calm, or want to wish a surrounding safety on another woman. The ‘spell’ is chanted three times to lock it in, as for many practices and religions, three is a number of power.

2. All the mentions of blue are somewhat specific to my school, though the color has always played an active role in my life. I feel a strong connection to the blue of large bodies of water, the ocean, and sky, etc., so I find it very interesting when color blue makes its way inside.

3. I see the line, “cunning linguists” as one which divides the poem, transitioning it into the next part. The term cunning became significant to me when I learned more of it etymology, so I knew it would end up in one of my poems, and it quickly manifested here. The term “cunning” is related to the female genitals, as the modern slang term makes clear. In terms of etymology, “cunnus” is the Latin word for the vulva (Christopher Witcombe, Eve and the Identity of Women: 5. Eve and the Serpent, witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/5eveserpent.html.).

4. Here’s two rhetorical questions for you:

Does anyone else relate to the feeling of being at once very unaffected yet very affected by our parents and their actions? Does anyone else have fathers who use toothpicks?

5. I like the play on words turning stress into a mistress. Many of us have Mistress Stress in our lives, we may even allow her to abuse us.

6. The laugh to have heard “there is no reason for feminism or no need” is a direct response to the fact that some people have tried to content the need for feminism to me and have failed to understand the necessity and goal of it. I think that even my simple, smallest example which follows demonstrates that there is a cause for feminism.

7. The fact that a woman is not safe to walk alone at night and has to be in constant fear for her safety demonstrates a clear inequality. This being one that we often forget to consider among other more politically salient things, such as equal pay.

8. I directly imply that a woman walking alone at dark would rather meet a snake, because often a man is more terrifying. This statement is meant to further present the fear in such a situation, while playing with the irony of linkage between woman and serpent. I find the connection between Eve and the Serpent incredibly salient, especially as Eve became a symbol of sin in relation to him. The character Lilith is also in my mind in this part of the poem. According to Jewish mythology, she was the woman before Eve who came to be conflated with the Serpent in religious depictions.

In the book of Genesis, the serpent which deceived Eve is depicted as male. However, during the middle ages, there are some depictions of the serpent as a female: who is generally believed to be Lilith. Witcombe writes, “Frequently in art the serpent is represented as female. In a fresco by Michelangelo, for example, the serpent is shown with the upper body of a woman and snake-like lower parts” (Eve & the Serpent).

Witcombe also references “A serpent with a woman's head and blond hair also appears... in a fresco by Masolino of the Temptation on the entrance pilaster in the Brancacci Chapel in S. Maria del Carmine in Florence”(Eve & the Serpent). The paintings depict the serpent with a female head, or a female with serpent-like limbs. The artists of the 15th century thus depict a woman as not only the source of the fall of man (Eve), but furthermore as the source of evil and deception (the serpent). Witcombe writes “By identifying Eve as a temptress, she was seen as playing the same role as the evil serpent who had tempted her, thus linking the two” (Eve & the Serpent).

9. There are times when crying feels right, and there are times when it feels necessary, and awful and painful for reason, but I have also experienced moments where there seems to be no reason for crying. This refers to those moments I am sure that many women understand, where someone else is inducing your tears, it seems just to the purpose of inflicting pain to get an emotional response and exhaust you.

10. Finally, it all comes back to the voice. There’s reference to an attractive male voice and recognition of the potential of speaking, especially from voices of love. Is not love-speech like birdsong?

I am glad to write out my ideas relating to the poem and I hope you connected with some part of it. This poem has become a turning point for me in my writing, which I hope describes some aspect of the experiences of many women and girls.

Go girls and speak whatever you need. Love, truth, protection, peace…

Love, Sophie

By Sophie Laettner, Duke University