Full Description
This wonderfully sharp and witty collection of poems - feisty, bawdy, erotic, irreverent - is an illuminating comment on women's ability to transform poetry into a medium of subversiveness. There are jibes at hypocrisy and prejudice, plenty of sexiness and sauciness, and a riotous turning of the 'Lady Poet' image on its head. ('A fallinf leaf could stir her. / A wilting, dying rose / would make her write, both day and night, / the most rewarding prose. / She'd find a hidden meaning / in every pair of pants / then hurry home to be alone / and write about romance' - Maya Angelou). With poets spanning continents and centuries, this anthology demonstrates lavishly the myriad ways in which women can be 'wicked' - by their definition - and wilfully so!
Poems by: Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Aphra Behn, Nina Cassian, Emily Dickinson, Carol Ann Duffy, Lorna Goodison, Jackie Kay, Liz Lochead, Suniti Namjoshi, Grace Nichols, Dorothy Parker, Fiona Pitt-Kethley, Izumi Shikibu, Stevie Smith, Anna Wickham and many more.
Contents
"The clitoris in my throat": Sappho, if you are squeamish"; Anne French, the dangers of art; Maya Angelou, the impeccable conception; (part contents.) "Listen now if you dare": Stevie Smith, lightly bound; Dorothy Parker, neither bloody nor bowed; Bridget Jones, thermo-static; (part contents.) "The bush catches fire": Mary Webb, thunderbolts; Grace Nichols, my black triangle; Izumi Shikibu, don't blush; (part contents.) Queens of the underworld: Susan Kelly, behind the red shutters; Ruth Silcock, the Buddha's wife; Win Baker, waiting; (part contents); If they can't take a joke: Sylvia Kantaris, bluff; Dorothy Parker, resume; Margaret Atwood, an interview with a tourist; (part contents.)
