(Love this, tell me what you think, read it for a lit class).
Women must put off their rich apparel;
at midday they must disrobe.
Apart from men are the folds of sleep,
daylight's frank remakrs: the skin
of the eye, softening, softening.
Women must put on plainness,
the sweet set of the mouth's line;
the body must surface, the light,
the muscled indifference of deer.
A woman must let love recede,
the carved-out ribs sleep,
the vessel marked in bird lines
empty, as the sea empties her.
Say the sea, sound of leaves, the old
devotion, the call and response.
Reeds, caves, shoulders of cypress,
the woman who at this moment
does not need the world.
~Joy Katz
Spring Break Quarantine Style
4 years ago
6 comments:
E~ blogger is being a booger! I have been trying to post with difficulty! I like this poem, for it choice of words, but I am still digesting what it might mean? What was your take on it?
I don't really get it -- better explain phrase by phrase... :)
I love it. It is talking about how women at night rest, and cast off the persona that the world has told them they must wear. Off goes the fancy clothes, off goes the makeup, their eyes are soft with the lines that were covered up by makeup, their stomach that (they have starved themselves to get), is like a bowl carved out of them, and it gets to rest at night. The imagery of being away from the sea and its call-and-response, i.e. the world and its calls to us and our responses to it, is laid at rest. And the part where it says away from the world of men or what not, is not that she is celebte per say, but she is in her own world now, away from the male-driven world we as women must live in. That help?
Ahhhhh. Now I understand. Thanks Esperanza!
Esperanza, I tagged you for a fun meme. No pressure, but thought it would be really neat to read your answers.
I am way to excited to sit still...so when you have some time go see my finished painting!!
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