Menna Elfyn: ‘A God-Problem’, tr. Elin ap Hywel, from Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems 1995-2007 / Perffaith Nam: Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007 (Bloodaxe Books, 2007). Eliza: ‘To a Friend for Her Naked Breasts’, from Eliza’s Babes: four centuries of women’s poetry in English, c. 1500-1900, ed. Robyn Bolam (Bloodaxe Books, 2005). Rebecca Elson: ‘Antidote to the Fear of Death’ from Responsibility to Awe (Carcanet Press, 2001).
Vicki Feaver: ‘Women’s Blood’ from The Handless Maiden (Jonathan Cape, 1994); ‘The Woman Who Talked to Her Teeth’ from The Book of Blood (Jonathan Cape, 2006), by permission of The Random House Group Limited. Cheryl Follon: ‘The Doll’s House’ from All Your Talk (Bloodaxe Books, 2004); ‘Horse Sally or Ivy Blue’ from Dirty Looks (Bloodaxe Books, 2010). Angela France: ‘A Fallow Blooming’ from Occupation (Ragged Raven Press, 2009) by permission of the author. Janis Freegard: ‘Trichotillomania’ and ‘Trinity’ from Kingdom Animalia: The Escapades of Linnaeus (Auckland University Press, 2011).
Kerry Hammerton: ‘On New Year’s Eve’ from The Weather Report (Kerry Hammerton, Cape Town, 2014), by permission of the author. Kerry Hardie: ‘Flesh’ from Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, UK; Gallery Press, Ireland, 2011), by permission of the author and The Gallery Press, Loughcrew, Oldcastle, Co. Meath, Ireland, www.gallerypress.ie. Rita Ann Higgins: ‘The Liberator’ from Throw in the Vowels: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2005). Selima Hill: ‘Chocolate’ from Fruitcake (Bloodaxe Books, 2009); ‘The Bed’ from Gloria: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2008).
Kirsten Irving: ‘Recipe for a Saint’ and ‘Full-length Mirror’ from Never, Never, Never Come Back (Salt Publishing, 2012).
Maria Jastrzebska: ‘The Room of Coughing’ from Everyday Angels (Waterloo Press, 2009).
Jackie Kay: ‘Where It Hurts’ from Darling: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2007). Chris Kinsey: ‘A Clearing’ from Kung Fu Lullabies (Ragged Raven Press, 2004) by permission of the author. Angela Kirby: ‘Jardi D’Eros, Barcelona’ from Mr Irresistible (Shoestring Press, 2005).
Radmila Lazic: ‘I’ll Be a Wicked Old Woman’, tr. Charles Simic, from A Wake for the Living, copyright © 1998, 2000, 2001 by Radmila Lazic, translation copyright © 2003 by Charles Simic, by permission of The Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org. Patricia Lockwood: ‘Rape Joke’ from Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, copyright © by Patricia Lockwood, by permission of Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Amy McCauley: ‘No, Mon Amour’ first published in The Stinging Fly. Hollie McNish: ‘Embarrassed’ from Nobody Told Me (Blackfriars Books, 2016), by permission of the author.
Una Marson: ‘Kinky Hair Blues’ from The Moth and the Star (Una Marson, Jamaica, 1937), reprinted in Modern Women Poets, ed. Deryn Rees Jones (Bloodaxe Books, 2005), copyright holder not traced. Gwerful Mechain: ‘To the Vagina’, tr. Katie Gramich, from Welsh Women’s Poetry: 1460-2001, eds. Catherine Brennan and Katie Gramich (Honno, 2003), by permission of the translator. Sinéad Morrissey: ‘Genetics’ from The State of the Prisons (Carcanet Press, 2005).
Grace Nichols: ‘Invitation’ and ‘My Black Triangle’ from I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2010), by permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London, on behalf of Grace Nichols, copyright © Grace Nichols, 1984, 2010. Mary Noonan: ‘Bright Day’ from The Fado House (Dedalus Press, 2012).
Lani O’Hanlon: ‘Cherry Blossoms’ first published in The Stinging Fly. Sharon Olds: ‘Self-portrait, Rear View’ from One Secret Thing (Jonathan Cape, 2009), by permission of The Random House Group Limited. Leanne O’Sullivan: ‘Bulimia’ from Waiting for My Clothes (Bloodaxe Books, 2004).
Sally Read: ‘Breaking Fish Necks’ from The Point of Splitting (Bloodaxe Books, 2005). Janet Rogerson: ‘The Dowry’, first published in The Rialto, 76 (2012).
Eva Salzman: ‘Professor’ from Double Crossing: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2004). Lesley Saunders: ‘In Praise of Footbinding’, first published in The North, 52 (Spring 2014). E.J. Scovell: ‘Deaths of Flowers’ from Collected Poems (Carcanet Press, 1988). Warsan Shire: ‘The Ugly Daughter’ from Ten: the new wave (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), by permission of the author. Barbara Smith: ‘Pair Bond’ and ‘Achieving the Lotus Gait’ from The Angel’s Share (Doghouse Books, 2012). Arundhathi Subramaniam: ‘Rutting’ from Where I Live: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2009). Anna Swir: ‘Happiness’ from Talking to My Body, translated by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan, copyright © 1996 by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan, by permission of The Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org. May Swenson: ‘Question’ from Nature Poems Old and New (Mariner Books, 1994).
Susana Thénon: ‘Nuptial Song’, tr. Maria Negroni, first published in Being Human, ed. Neil Astley (Bloodaxe Books, 2011), by permission of the translator. Chase Twichell: ‘Horse’ from Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, UK; Copper Canyon Press, USA, 2010).
Heidi Williamson: ‘On seeing the Furies in the sky’ from Electric Shadow (Bloodaxe Books, 2011). Anna Woodford: ‘Darling Kisses’, first published in The North, 46 (2010).
Dimitra Xidous: ‘Peach Season’ from Keeping Bees (Doire Press, 2014).
All other poems were first published in this anthology, and thanks are due to those authors for granting their permission.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders of the poems published in this book. The editors and publisher apologise if any material has been included without permission or without the appropriate acknowledgement, and would be glad to be told of anyone who has not been consulted.
INDEX OF POETS
Hira A. 132
Patricia Ace 43
Kim Addonizio 33
Deborah Alma 27
Moniza Alvi 113, 138
Claire Askew 52
Ruth Aylett 23
Caitlin Bagley 57
Mary Barber [c. 1690-1757] 121
Suzanne Batty 22
Donna Beck 137
Elaine Beckett 135
Sunayana Bhargava 35
Sujata Bhatt 105
Sophia Blackwell 109
Ana Blandiana 24
Niamh Boyce 65
Alison Brackenbury 114
Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze 146
Zoë Brigley 85, 91
Hannah Brockbank 137
Judy Brown 63
Katie Byford 154
Miki Byrne 48
Kimberly Campanello 77
Becky Cherriman 72
Maya Chowdhry 106
Kate Clanchy 38
Kristina Close 50, 51
Lucille Clifton 156, 164
Elisabeth Sennitt Clough 68
Katie Condon 128, 150
Anna Crowe 85
Nicola Daly 59, 153
Claudia Daventry 122
Imtiaz Dharker 102
Katie Donovan 31, 157
Tishani Doshi 15
Rita Dove 160
Carol Ann Duffy 119
Helen Dunmore 21
Julie Egdell 20
Eliza [fl. 1652] 46
Menna Elfyn 127
Rebecca Elson 111
Vicki Feaver 56, 135
Cheryl Follon 123, 139
Angela France 110
Caron Freeborn 61
Janis Freegard 47, 143
Caroline Gilfillan 97
Jean Gill 67
Rosaleen Glennon 48
Sally Goldsmith 138
Kerry Hammerton 28
Kerry Hardie 58
Maggie Harris 93
Rita Ann Higgins 95
Selima Hill 43, 129
Gemma Howell 73, 79
Sarah Hymas 26
Kirsten Irving 126, 149
Sarah James 67
Maria Jastrzębska 116
Kris Johnson 32, 158
Frances Kay 25
Jackie Kay 86
Róisín Kelly 91
Chris Kinsey 36
Angela Kirby 141
Wendy Klein 103
Radmila Lazic 162
Pippa Little 151
Katherine Lockton 148
Patricia Lockwood 81
Amy McCauley 152
Siobhán Mac Mahon 39, 161
Hollie McNish 59
Una Marson 133
Mary Matusz 117
Gwerful Mechain 129
Kiran Millwood Hargrave 37
Sinéad Morrissey 13
Grace Nichols 44, 147
Mary Noonan 24
Lani O’Hanlon 136
Sharon Olds 120
Leanne O’Sullivan 29
Anna Percy 16
Bethany W. Pope 50
Evelyn Pye 133
Sally Read 98
Angela Readman 156, 164
Janet Rogerson 103
Tracey S. Rosenberg 94
Sally St Clair 96
Eva Salzman 159
Jacqueline Saphra 72
Lesley Saunders 101
Lorna Scott 155
E.J. Scovell 166
Vicky Scrivener 117
Warsan Shire 34
Jasmine Simms 154
Barbara Smith 64, 125
Rebecca Smith 131
Sue Spiers 140
Arundhathi Subramaniam 99
Anna Swir 145
May Swenson 90
Alice Tarbuck 46
Susana Thénon 70
Alex Toms 17
Lydia Towsey 14
Jessica Traynor 95
Shash Trevett 76
Chase Twichell 13
Susan Utting 142
Bogusia Wardein 19
Leah Watt 54
Julia Webb 55
Eloise Williams 42
Heidi Williamson 165
Phoebe Winstanley 53
Anna Woodford 104
Dimitra Xidous 112
ABOUT RAVING BEAUTIES
Raving Beauties are Sue Jones-Davies, Fan Viner and Dee Orr (and founder member Anna Carteret).
In the Pink, our first cabaret of songs and poetry opened in a pub, sold out at the Edinburgh Festival and featured on Channel 4’s opening night in 1982. Make It Work was commissioned for Channel 4’s second birthday. A third show about the relationship between mothers and daughters, Tea at the Ritz, premièred at the Young Vic Studio.
The Women’s Press invited us to edit collections of poetry inspired by our shows. This led to In the Pink (1983), No Holds Barred (1985), an introduction to the work of Anna Swir, Fat Like the Sun (1986), and a collection of prose and poetry about relationship breakdown, Bust Up (1992).
Raving Beauties have toured their shows in the UK, Ireland, Guernsey, Norway and Spain, and received British Council funding to visit Jamaica and Mexico. Our shows and books which explore issues including work, motherhood, love, creativity, sex and violence have touched the lives of thousands of women. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the women whose poetry we are still fortunate enough to publish and perform.
Sue Jones-Davies, with a history as a singer and actor spanning many years is probably best known as ‘the Welsh tart’ in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. She was a member of the Bowles Brothers Band and the Welsh singing duo Cusan Tan. Sue now spends most of her time teaching yoga and as a forester in Wales.
Dee Orr is an actor, musician and singer whose career began in bands such as Hi Jinx. She has worked extensively in theatre and her many television appearances include Alan Bleasdale’s GBH. Dee also spent several years as a tutor and healer at The College of Psychic Studies in London.
Fan Viner has acted, directed, written poetry and plays and taught in many different institutions including a prison, universities and a psychiatric hospital. Most recently she has received Arts Council awards for community multimedia performances and installations, a new initiative developed with the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, a contemporary art gallery with an international reputation. She lives in Hastings.
Copyright
Selection and introduction copyright © 2015 Raving Beauties
Copyright of poems rests with authors and other rights
holders as cited in the acknowledgements on pages 169-172,
which constitute an extension of this copyright page.
First published 2015 by
Bloodaxe Books Ltd,
Eastburn,
South Park,
Hexham,
Northumberland NE46 1BS.
This ebook edition first published in 2015.
www.bloodaxebooks.com
For further information about Bloodaxe titles
please visit our website or write to
the above address for a catalogue.
Cover design: Fan Viner & Chris Ford Graphic Design.
The right of Raving Beauties to be identified as Editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN: 978 1 78037 156 6 ebook
Hallelujah for 50ft Women Page 14