Dear Tracy
Some hurried responses to your interesting post:
Thanks for the poem by Lesbia Harford - one of my favourites! I also
love Periodicity.
Do you think that it's more possible for women to write poetry freely in
Australia, the social conditioning being somewhat less severe? The poets
my age who are most interesting here are mostly women - to the point that
some men (!) are complaining about gender bias. Perhaps Deb Comerford
could comment better on this, if she reads this post.
I've also thought a lot about the whole question, which is of course a
lot more complex than it appears. I think poetry submissions by women to
magazines are something like a third less than those by men. I had a
gifted primary school teacher when I was five, and I have sometimes
wondered if it was because of her that it didn't occur to me until I was
in my 20s and meeting other writers for the first time that it *wasn't*
possible for women to write poetry. Why? This feeling seems to adhere
much more closely to poetry than it does to prose. I remember my naive
astonishment at the idea! Feminism didn't become crucial to me until I
had a baby - it wasn't until then that I began to understand how
intractable a lot of gender barriers are and how profoundly they reach
into every area.
The question of internal censorship seems the most important when
discussing poems. The fear of "messiness"? Then there is the problem of
merely being reactionary, where writing poetry requires a more whole
response: it forces argument into an area defined by its limitations.
(Something I'm often grappling with).
Best wishes
Alison
Home Page: http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/bronte/338
Masthead online: http://www.geocities.com/soho/studios/5662
PO Box 186
Newport VIC 3015
Australia
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