Poems

by Rita Mae Brown

No missing pages, Water Damage, or stains. Spine shows creasing. This is a readable copy.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Lesbian, Queer, Nonfiction, Feminism

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Rita Mae Brown is a prolific American writer, most known for her mysteries and other novels (Rubyfruit Jungle). She is also an Emmy-nominated screenwriter.

Brown was born illegitimate in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She was raised by her biological mother's female cousin and the cousin's husband in York, Pennsylvania and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Starting in the fall of 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida at Gainesville on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. She subsequently enrolled at Broward Community College[3] with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four-year institution.

Between fall 1964 and 1969, she lived in New York City, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University[6] where she received a degree in Classics and English. Later,[when?] she received another degree in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts.[citation needed] Brown received a Ph.D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

Starting in 1973, Brown lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In 1977, she bought a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia where she still lives.[9] In 1982, a screenplay Brown wrote while living in Los Angeles, Sleepless Nights, was retitled The Slumber Party Massacre and given a limited release theatrically.

During Brown's spring 1964 semester at the University of Florida at Gainesville, she became active in the American Civil Rights Movement. Later in the 1960s, she participated in the anti-war movement, the feminist movement and the Gay Liberation movement.

Brown took an administrative position with the fledgling National Organization for Women, but resigned in January 1970 over Betty Friedan's anti-gay remarks and NOW's attempts to distance itself from lesbian organizations. She claims she played a leading role in the "Lavender Menace" zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, which protested Friedan's remarks and the exclusion of lesbians from the women's movement.

In the early 1970s, she became a founding member of The Furies Collective, a lesbian feminist newspaper collective in Washington, DC, which held that heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.

Brown told Time magazine in 2008, "I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became [in the late 1970s] the only lesbian in America."

Reviews

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gayyyyyyyyyy

[trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

was going to make some cheeky comment about loving 70s lesbian pining but as i read more, i started really connecting with brown's work. i really fell in love with this collection, and i strongly recommend it to everyone.

"I live to cling
To climb
To cry, 'I am.'"

[Juniperus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to start this by saying the cover art is so freaky I had to turn this book over every night on my bedside table because it creeps me out so much. This book combines two collections from Brown. The first, "The Hand That Cradles The Rock," is mostly very political "revolutionary" poetry. It's probably the kind of thing that would make more sense to readers of the time, because I wasn't really sure what she was revolting against anyway. If anything these poems are decently readable. The second collection is called "Songs To A Handsome Woman," which is the lesbian poetry we all came for. It's all lesbian yearning though, and it made me wonder why is it always yearning? I suppose I just can't relate to these unrequited love poems because I'm in a relationship lol.

"True Confessions"

In the face of her beauty
My rhythm shudders
And I am no longer a poet
But just another woman in love.

[Tabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very contemporary lesbian poetry, written in Brown's typical straightforward and autobiographical voice.

[Sara Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cornerstone of contemporary poetry and a relatable, achingly familiar look into the frustrations queer woman face in the U.S., as well as the way we choose to love one another.

[Julia Ziegler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few of these poems I loved. The rest, I felt neutral. Not much else to say except I think reading poetry in high quantity (regardless of my perceived quality) is helping me understand how I want to write poetry.

[beau · Rating 3 out of 5]

For Those of Us Working For a New World

The dead are the only people
to have permanent dwellings.
We, nomads of Revolution
Wander over the desolation of many generations
And are reborn on each other's lips
To ride wild mares over unfathomable canyons
Heralding dawns, dreams and sweet desire.


The Woman's House of Detention

Here amid the nightsticks, handcuffs and interrogation
Inside the cells, beatings, the degradation
We grew a strong and bitter root
That promises justice.


A Short Note for Liberals

I've seen your kind before
Forty plus and secure
Settling for a kiss from feeble winds
And calling it a storm.


The Bourgeois Questions

"I wonder about the burn
Behind your eyes,
What is it in me that disquiets me so?
Do you hate me for my softness?"

"No, I've come through a land
You'll never know."


A Song for Winds and My Vassar Women

Here among the trees
The world takes the shape of a woman's body
And there is beauty in the place
Lips touch
But minds miss the vital connection
And hearts wander
Down dormitory halls
More hurt than hollow.

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was two of her earlier publications in one: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Songs to a Handsome Woman. The section of Songs to a Handsome Woman you can hear more of the voice. The Hand that Rocks the Cradle was a poet struggling to find that voice. It was almost like she was showing off how much she learned in college and how smart she was. The poems were very pretentious.

Whereas Songs to a Handsome Woman was written by someone comfortable with her voice and what she wanted to say. She wasn't trying to beat the reader over the head with her meaning; she was just expressing herself.

So first one would have been a one star, but Songs to a Handsome Woman would have been 4 stars. It evens out.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such passion and honesty.

[Gina Barnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not in her style yet. Early works...