15+1 φεμινιστικά ποιήματα για την Παγκόσμια Ημέρα Ποίησης: «Η ποίηση δεν είναι πολυτέλεια»

Από την απελευθερωτική δημιουργικότητα των χιλιανών Las Tesis και του φεμινιστικού ύμνου “El violador eres tú”, μέχρι το μεξικάνικο “Canción sin miedo” και την εγχώρια διασκευή του από την Ανοιχτή Ορχήστρα, «Τραγουδάμε δίχως φόβο», η Τέχνη βρίσκει πρωταγωνιστικό ρόλο στα μεταμορφωτικά φεμινιστικά κινήματα. Υπάρχει κάτι που κάνει τον στίχο -γραπτό και προφορικό- ένα μοναδικά ισχυρό τρόπο έκφρασης των πολύπλευρων εμπειριών του φεμινισμού. Για αυτό, για την Παγκόσμια Ημέρα Ποίησης, δημιουργήσαμε αυτή τη συλλογή  με δεκαέξι φεμινιστικά ποιήματα, ελπίζοντας να δώσουμε μια χαραμάδα φωτός στην καθημερινότητα όλων.

Γιατί «η Ποίηση δεν είναι πολυτέλεια», όπως έχει τονίσει η Audre Lorde στο ομώνυμο δοκίμιό της. Υπάρχει μια φωνή για κάθε οπτική γωνία των φεμινισμών παρακάτω. Από φεμινιστικά ερωτικά ποιήματα μέχρι ποιήματα για τα δικαιώματα των γυναικών, μπορείτε να διαβάσετε, να παρακολουθήσετε τις απαγγελίες τους και να εμπνευστείτε από μερικές από τις μεγαλύτερες φεμινίστριες ποιήτριες που διαχρονικά μας έχουν προσφέρει ένα σωσίβιο να πιαστούμε. Μια ανάσα. 

“For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes  and dreams toward survival and

change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.”

– Audre Lorde

Απολαύστε τα φεμινιστικά ποιήματα:

“Still I Rise” της Maya Angelou 

[απόσπασμα]

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tetcs9Qksyc

“A Woman Speaks” της Audre Lorde

I have been woman

for a long time

beware my smile

I am treacherous with old magic   

and the noon’s new fury

with all your wide futures   

promised

I am

woman

and not white.

Lady Lazarus της Sylvia Plath

I have done it again.

One year in every ten

I manage it—

A sort of walking miracle, my skin

Bright as a Nazi lampshade,

My right foot

A paperweight,

My face a featureless, fine

Jew linen.

Planetarium της Adrienne Rich 

A woman in the shape of a monster   

a monster in the shape of a woman   

the skies are full of them

a woman      ‘in the snow

among the Clocks and instruments   

or measuring the ground with poles’

in her 98 years to discover   

8 comets

she whom the moon ruled   

like us

levitating into the night sky   

riding the polished lenses

Galaxies of women, there

doing penance for impetuousness   

ribs chilled   

in those spaces    of the mind

Marrying the hangman της Margaret Atwood [απόσπασμα]

She has been condemned to death by hanging. A man

may escape this death by becoming the hangman, a

woman by marrying the hangman. But at the present

time there is no hangman; thus there is no escape.

There is only a death, indefinitely postponed. This is

not fantasy, it is history. 

“Phenomenal Woman” της Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size   

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,   

The stride of my step,   

The curl of my lips.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egrQH2UTaWE

“We Sinful Women” της Kishwar Naheed, από το Πακιστάν

It is we sinful women

who are not awed by the grandeur of those who wear gowns

who don’t sell our lives

who don’t bow our heads

who don’t fold our hands together.

“What They Don’t Want You to Know” της Amanda Lovelace

Two 

“your hips will try to burst through your skin.

your thighs will try to grow together like a mermaid’s tail.

a soft garden will try to sprout on your legs.

(& between your legs, on your upper lip, on your armpits, etc.)

no, you are not just here to be sexy for him.

the world begins & ends when you say so.

– what they don’t want you to know”

Three 

We

finally refused

to be seen

as only

bodies crafted for

the men’s

use& consumption,

so we set the

clouds ablaze to sway them

to show them how

wonderfully we could

co-exist

but

they chose to take it

as a threat

& they

have never fully

forgiven us

for claiming

the portion of the sky

that was always rightfully

Ours.

– when the glass sky is the limit.

“Respect” της Melissa Studdard

[απόσπασμα] 

Because her body is winter inside a cave

because someone built

fire there and forgot to put it out

because bedtime is a castle

she’s building inside herself

with a moat

and portcullis

and buckets full of mist

“My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter” της Aja Monet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvpdQexeuLA

“A woman speaks” της Audre Lorde

[απόσπασμα] 

Moon marked and touched by sun

my magic is unwritten

but when the sea turns back

it will leave my shape behind.

[…]

I have been woman

for a long time

beware my smile

I am treacherous with old magic   

and the noon’s new fury

with all your wide futures   

promised

I am

woman

and not white.

Pocket-sized Feminism της Blythe Baird

The only other girl at the party

is ranting about feminism. The audience:

a sea of rape jokes and snapbacks

and styrofoam cups and me. They gawk

at her mouth like it is a drain

clogged with too many opinions.

I shoot her an empathetic glance

and say nothing. This house is for

wallpaper women. What good

is wallpaper that speaks?

I want to stand up, but if I do,

whose coffee table silence

will these boys rest their feet on?

I want to stand up, but if I do,

what if someone takes my spot?

I want to stand up, but if I do,

what if everyone notices I’ve been

sitting this whole time? I am guilty

of keeping my feminism in my pocket

until it is convenient not to, like at poetry

slams or my women’s studies class. 

“Fantastic breasts and where to find them” της Brenna Twohy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXey2_i7GOA&t=20s

Who Said It Was Simple της Audre Lorde

There are so many roots to the tree of anger   

that sometimes the branches shatter   

before they bear.

Sitting in Nedicks

the women rally before they march   

discussing the problematic girls   

they hire to make them free.

An almost white counterman passes   

a waiting brother to serve them first   

and the ladies neither notice nor reject   

the slighter pleasures of their slavery.   

But I who am bound by my mirror   

as well as my bed

see causes in colour

as well as sex

and sit here wondering   

which me will survive   

all these liberations.

“What’s the Greatest Lesson a Woman Should Learn?” της Rupi Kaur

What’s the greatest lesson a woman should learn?

That since day one, she’s already had everything

she needs within herself. it’s the world that

convinced her she did not.