A Fierce Brightness Twenty-Five Years of Women's Poetry

A Fierce Brightness Twenty-five Years of Women's Poetry

Introduction by Hilda Raz Carole Simmons Oles

Edited by Margarita Donnelly Beverly McFarlana Miclji Reaman

CALYX Books Corvallis, Oregon Tame of Contents

Ursula K. Le Guin For CALYX xi Margarita Donnelly Foreword xii Hilda Raz and Carole Simmons Oles Introduction xiv Janet E. Aalfs Sewing the Torn Sleeve 1 Frances Payne Adler Riding the Eye 2 The Voices Are Coming Up 3 Marjorie Agosin Mi Estomago / My Belly 4 Questions 5 Anna Akhmatova In the Evening 6 As if with a straw... 7 Jody Aliesan there is no real edge to anything 8 Paula Gunn Allen Weed 10 Dear World: 11 Julia Alvarez Against Cinderella 12 Judith Arcana Great with Child 13 Diane Lillian Averill Shoplifter Hands 14 Deborah Bacharach The New Joke 15 Rebecca Baggett From Arc of the Amish: A Quilt Exhibition Rachel: Queen Charlotte's Crown 16 Rachel: Crown of Thorns 16 Anna: Rose of Sharon 17 Jane Bailey Ceasefire 20 Barbara Baldwin A Field of Poppies 21 Relics 22 Judith Barrington Blood 23 You There. . . 23 ' A Fierce Brightness

Ellen Bass To Praise 24 Sujata Bhatt What Does One Write When the World Starts to Disappear? 26 Written After Hearing About the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan— 28 Gloria Bird The Women Fell like Beautiful Horses 30 Olga Broumas Old Wives' Tale 32 Amazon Twins 34 Rosario Castellanos Love 35 Return 35 Diana Chang On Being in the Midwest 36 Marilyn Chin We Are Americans Now, We Live in the Tundra 37 Jo Whitehorse Cochran To Keep the Spirits 38 Kathleen Crown Necklace: Rich Pink Corona Round a Flashing Yellow Heart 40 The Holy Ghost Flies into Second Baptist on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge 43 Cortney Davis The Smoke We Make Pictures Of 44 It Is August 24th 46 Madeline DeFrees From Figures for a Carrousel: 3. The Music 48 Sheila Demetre A Woman Is Running for Her Life 49 Alice Derry Anne 50 Chitra Divakaruni The Quilt 52 The Alley of Flowers 54 Susan Elbe Practicing Eternity 55 Maria Ercilla Oysters and Zarzuelas 56 Stephanie Farrow The Civil War 57 Pesha Gertler The Right Thing 59 Standing with Chiyo-Ni 60 Diane Glancy Great Indian Father in the Subway 61 Lunar Eclipse, July 6, 1982 62 Jane Glazer Final Disposition 64 Point of No Return 65 Natalie Goldberg Two Iowa Farmers 66 Carol Gordon Calling Out the Names 68 Rebecca Gordon Adolescence 69 Nights in Siuna 70 Janice Gould Going Home 71 Tanana Valley 72 Renee Gregorio The Long Hill of Garrapata 73 Marilyn Hacker Aubade I 75 Aubade II 75 Jessica Hagedorn The Song of Bullets 76 Hazel Hall Maker of Songs 79 Made of Crepe de Chine 79 A Baby's Dress 80 Leigh Hancock Rain on Snow 81 Jana Harris Fever 82 Sending the Mare to Auction 84 Jean Hegland The Crone I Will Become 85 Judith Hemschemeyer Commandments 86 O Mother My Giant Redwood 87 Donna Henderson Transparent Woman 88 Jane Hilberry Crazy Jane Goes to Painting Class 90 Jane Hirshfield The Stream of It 91 Picnic 92 Sibyl James How I'll Live Then 93 The Sisters of Saida Manoubia 94 ' A Fierce Brightnei

Terri L. Jewell Felled Shadows 96 Sistah Flo 97 LuAnn Keener Dehorning the Yearlings 98 Kalehua Parrilla Kim Ka Hak / The Nurturing Place 99 Barbara Kingsolver The Middle Daughter 101 Remember the Moon Survives 102 Sandra Kohler Why a Woman Can't Be Pope 104 From Ars Poetica Feminae: Vessel 104 Joan Larkin Risks: 105 Self-Love 105 Ursula K. Le Guin At the Party 106 His Daughter 106 Shirley Geok-lin Lim Pantoun for Chinese Women 107 Anuradha Mahapatra Tambura 108 Lin Max Stone Fruit 109 When the Tules Are Peppered with Red-winged Blackbirds 110 Judith McCombs Epithet 112 Love Poem, Later 114 Colleen J. McElroy Learning to Swim at Forty-five 115 To Welcome a Changeling 117 Virginia McGuire Leaning into the Tilt 119 Elizabeth McLagan At Twelve 120 Reading the Names 121 Deborah A. Miranda Stories I Tell My Daughter 122 Susan Moon Unintended 124 Pat Mora Bruja: Witch 126 Loss of Control 127 A Fierce Bright

Cherrie Moraga La Dulce Culpa 128 Robin Morgan Geography Lesson 130 Sharon Olds The Language of the Brag 132 Alicia Ostriker From: To Love Is 133 The Idea of Making Love 133 Debbra Palmer Wade's Hoggers 134 Molly Peacock Sweet Time 136 The Veil of If 137 Paulann Petersen Groom of the Animal-Bride 138 I Listen to Alice Walker on a Pocket Radio 140 Marge Piercy The air like stained glass cuts me 141 Andrea Potos The One Red-haired Summer 143 Twenty Years Later, to a Friend 144 Margaret Randall I Want the Words Back 145 Vicki Reitenauer Wife Of 148 Jennifer Richter Everywhere the Earth Is Opening 150 Madonna del Parto: Our Lady of Birth-Giving 151 Wendy Rose Ta Tiopa Maza Win / Iron Door Woman 152 May Sarton The Silence Now 155 Mira Chieko Shimabukuro After the Separation, Dad Takes Me to the Dance for the Dead 156 Maurya Simon Snow 157 Lyubov Sirota Your Glance Will Trip on My Shadow 160 Judith Sornberger Wallpapering to Patsy Cline 161 When She Can't Sleep 163 Susan Spady Tending Flowers 165 The Push-Pull of This Love 166 x • A Fierce Brightness

Alfonsina Storni You Want Me White 167 Wislawa Szymborska Drinking Wine 169 The Woman's Portrait 170 Mary Tallmountain Brother Wolverine 171 Indian Blood 172 Alison Townsend Persephone in America 173 Haunani-Kay Trask Chant of Lamentation 175 Gail Tremblay Urban Indians, Pioneer Square, Seattle 177 Surviving 178 Connie Voisine Blue Hat 179 Emily Warn Une Nuit Blanche 180 Carole Boston Weatherford Charleston Baskets 182 The Ladies of Dimbaza 185 Ingrid Wendt Singing the Mozart Requiem 186 Judith Werner Ethel Rosenberg and Me 191 Eleanor Wilner Operations: Desert Shield, Desert Storm 193 Miriam's Song 196 Merle Woo Under a Full Moon 198 Elizabeth Woody Speaking Hands 199 Mitsuye Yamada The Club 201 Contributors' Notes and Index 203