Woman poets are marginalized, have been marginalized, if we are to believe modern researchers, since people ignored Shakespeare's sister. (Well, THAT was a tough act to compete with.) If one looks through anthologies of poetry, especially modern poetry, the preponderance of poets are men. Many, many women have been writing poetry ever since Sapho in Greece but, as in so many other arts, they are almost ignored. Women poets have won Nobel prizes (Wislawa Szymborska is a favorite and is in the panel that's mostly orange) and been names US Poet Laureates. Yet I heard a man who was supposedly teaching poetry say, "there are no great women poets." I was taking a class from that man. I left the class ... and told him how I felt about his attitude.
Because I read many women poets and love their work, I decided to make a quilt using selvages -- the "margins" of our quilting fabrics which many quilters cut off and discard. So I have given twelve poets I especially admire large panels in the center of the quilt and I have put quotes by more than twenty other poets around the border. I finished the quilt today and hung it over my piano which will be it's regular home. Above is the whole thing -- you can't read any part of it in the photo and below is a detail showing three poets, Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Bishop. It's still National Poetry Month and I'm still giving poems to many, many friends.
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4 comments :
Marvelous quilt and creative idea.
Whew -- what a beautiful accomplishment! I looked at the close up photo and loved it. You certainly are an artist -- FOLKWAYS NOTEBOOK.
Thank you both, Carol and Barbara. I hope it will compel some people t get close and spend time reading some of the poetry and to think about how little they read women's (or anyone's)poetry.
Thank you both, Carol and Barbara. I hope it will compel some people t get close and spend time reading some of the poetry and to think about how little they read women's (or anyone's)poetry.
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