Friday, April 28, 2006

poemmemoirstory

I recently received the latest issue of poemmemoirstory (PMS), an annual literary journal published by the University if Alabama, Birmingham. The title's acronym refers to the fact that all of the authors are women. I don't relate my own sense of womanhood to that particular experience of bloating, pain, and chocolate craving, but there is some wonderful poetry in this journal.

The following poem about the power of self-love is by Niki Sixx. Ms. Sixx's bio says that she is a member of the Cave Canem Workshop, whose mission is "the discovery and cultivation of new voices in African-American poetry." If you are an aspiring African-American poet, check out their nicely-designed site.

Have a wonderful weekend, and remember ladies: shoot.


Girrl

find one thing to love
inside yourself
carry it like a gun
in guerrilla hands
and when government
defeats you, mountains fall
lovers leave, and the words
of women before come
crashing to the ground
hold this love between
your hands, sing its name
like the alphabet
and shoot woman. Shoot.

Niki Sixx
PMS Number 6, p. 44

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"find one thing to love..." I like this line, powerful and reassuring. That one thing to love is a weapon for us to cling and hold unto our struggle to live, giving us hope to look forward even if the whole world were to crumble today or tomorrow.

Amy said...

It is powerful, Danny, and it gives us the power to identify and claim that thing inside us which is lovable. It does not depend upon the opinions or definitions of anyone else.

J.B. Rowell said...

I'm going to work on finding that one thing . . . powerful stuff.

christopher higgs said...

i just stumbled into your universe, thought i'd leave a fingerprint.

i dig what you've got going on.

Martyn said...

Fantastically charged poem.

Amy said...

Hey, JB:

You'll find it.


Chris and Martyn:

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a note. Much appreciated.

MB said...

Amy, powerful poem... even if I'd prefer to think of this somehow as a squirt gun. Meaning, simply, that the implicit violence of this bothers me, even while I recognize that it is part of what lends it power.

I think Nikki Sixx has a grreat naame.