love belongs to those who do the feeling

by Judy Grahn

love belongs to those who do the feeling ―an exciting collection of new and selected poetry by Judy Grahn. The book contains selections from Judy's entire body of poetic work from The Work of a Common Woman , The Queen of Wands and The Queen of Swords , to new poems written between 1997 and 2008. Judy's poetry is rangy and provocative. It has been written at the heart of so many of the important social movements of the last forty years that the proper word is foundational―Judy Grahn's poetry is foundational to the spirit of movement. People consistently report that Judy's poetry is also uplifting―an unexpected side effect of work that is aimed at the mind as well as the heart. Judy continues to insist that love goes beyond romance, to community, and that community goes beyond the everyday world, to the connective worlds of earth and spirit.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Feminism

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2008

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i LOVE judy grahn. her poetry had such a feeling of community and warmth while at the same time maintaining a sense of history and realism.

Ah Love, you smell of petroleum
and overwork
with grease on your fingernails,
paint in your hair
there is a pained look in your eye
from no appreciation
you speak to me of the lilacs
and appleblossoms we ought to have
the banquets we should be serving[...]
someday. Meantime here is your cracked plate
with spaghetti. Wash your hands &
touch me, praise
my cooking. I shall praise your calluses.
we shall dance in the kitchen
of our imagination.

This volume includes The Common Woman Poems in their entirety, selections from Edward the Dyke, She Who, Confrontations with the Devil in the Form of Love, The Queen of Wands, and the Queen of Swords, we well as some new poems. I'm reading the full length volume of The Queen of Swords right now which is, hmm, a theatre poem? a poetic play? a modern epic poem?, based on the Sumerian myth of the goddess Innana/Helen/Ishtar/Astare. However I think I like the poems better a bit more out of context as they are in this volume. My favorite selections though I think are from Confrontations with the Devil in the Form of Love.

Some of the poem in this volume get a little weird occasionally in that Mary Dalyesque way of being too smart and punster-y for me to really follow, but it seems really clear to me that Judy Grahn has been a seminal (if you will) influence on a lot of lesbian/feminist poets, even if she's not as widely known as other writers. Apparently Ntozake Shange was partly inspired to write for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf after reading The Common Woman Poems, Ani di Franco has done readings of "Detroit Annie, Hitchhiking", and her favorite poem is said to be A Woman Is Talking to Death. Reading some of the She Who poems I see a lot of similarities to some of Alix Olsen's calmer pieces and both The Queen of Swords and The Queen of Wands seem as if they were written while Judy Grahn was sharing a studio with Judy Chicago. This creative cross-pollination can hardly be a coincidence. Grahn talks of consulting with lesbianfeminist luminaries like Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldua, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Cherrie Moraga, and June Jordan. She says that her writing is so tied to community that "if I don't have [a community] I will go create one, just to have a community to write into; to connect with; to write from." The title of the volume, Love Belongs To Those Who Do The Feeling, is taken from the poem "a funeral plainsong from a younger woman to an older woman" -- a poem Grahn wrote for the funeral of her former partner and longtime friend. It is specifically noted that the poem is for ceremonial use only (e.g. funerals and memorials), not to be simply read, as poetry, in a appreciation of its artistry. It is a poem meant for a very specific purpose: creating a space for queer women to mourn & honor the death of one of their family/women and take on her work and passions as a way of remembering within the community.

i will be your mouth now, to do your singing
breath belongs to those who do the breathing.
[...]
now you have left you can be
wherever the fire is when it blows itself out.
now you are a voice in any wind
i am a single wind
now you are the source of a fire
i am a single fire
[...]
i will be your heart now, to do your loving
love belongs to those who do the feeling.

life, as it stands so still along your fingers
beats in my hands, the hands i will, believing
that you have become she, who is not, any longer
somewhere in particular
[...]
love of my love, i am your breast
arm of my arm, i am your strength
breath of my breath, i am your foot
thigh of my thigh, back of my back
eye of my eye, beat of my beat
kind of my kind, i am your best
[...]
i will take your part now, to do your daring
lots belong to those who do the sharing.
i will be your fight now, to do your winning
[...]
we are together in my motion
you have wished us a bonded life

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was first introduced to Judy Grahn over a Discord server filled with literature loving lesbians, and after having read only this one poem, I had already fallen in love with her poetry. Everything, every single poem in this collection, has felt so real, so snatched from real life, for me, it felt as if I was living between the pages.

With great skill Grahn touches important topics like gender, sexuality, work, capitalism and spirituality, the latter of which I had gotten my perspective changed on by her beautiful works.
There were some poems here and there that I couldn't connect with on the same level entirely, but they were beautiful nonetheless. The ones that I did connect with deeply, mainly the Common Woman ones but also many more, gave me chills regularly and after having read them, I wish I could be able to read them for the first time again.

Sometimes, though rarely, the poems' formatting was weird and didn't convey a feeling of closeness but alienation and confusion. The bigger part of the formatting was fantastic, though, guiding one through the poems and matching the vibes of the story told.

The information Judy Grahn gave between the different collections gave important context and added things that I perhaps would not have cached up on otherwise.

This book was filled with breathtaking works and barely to no actual misses.

5/5 stars

[Alsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An EXCELLENT selection of Grahn's poetry. I never really got into poetry until I read Grahn, and now I really love it. She has had a huge influence on me; it's hard not to feel deeply connected to other women while reading her poetry. Beyond being beautiful, each poem manages to really make me think, going over it again and again to pick out the details. I also love how there are little introductions to each book, introducing context to the poems.

[Renee Alberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judy Grahn selected this collection of poems herself, making for a personalized retrospective of her career so far. Her introduction to each section enriches the experience of reading them by providing personal, philosophical and historical context. Grahn writes her poetry with the intention of reading it aloud, and employs rhythm, repetition and sound to enrich that presentation. The poems are deeply reflective and deal with subject matter that ranges from themes of feminism, lesbianism, and working class experience to mythic interpretations of Helen of Troy and love. Many are informed by Grahn’s considerable research on mythology, and employ imagery from those sources as well as the natural and industrial world. Whatever the subject matter and tone, each poem rings with its own vivid voice that engages the reader with its emotion, wit and heart.

[Red Hen Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I am thrilled that Judy Grahn's amazing poetry will once again become available to a new generation. She is a phenomenon--a fierce poet of witness and action, a visionary, with a tough and compassionate heart and a piercing intelligence, rooted in a spirituality that locates the sacred in the belly of the profane. And what a writer! Look at her wit, her compression, her ear for rhythms and sounds, her instinct for dialogic tension, her ability to compose large structures held together as in music by expected and unexpected recurrences, her common woman's twentieth century vocabulary along with ancient and archaic uses of language: naming as ritual, cursing, keening, spell- casting. Anyone who reads Grahn will be changed for life. Repeat: for life."
Alicia Ostriker

[Sandra de Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read one poem of Judy Grahn's back in the early 70's, and it influenced my life and my writing for more than 30 years. I have only recently rediscovered her, and welcomed her fully into my life and library. What an influential and inspirational woman, poet, activist, intellectual and philospher she is. Long live Judy Grahn!

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

More lesbian-feminist poems from another second-waver, yes. Very spell-like, influenced by myth and ideas of ritual. I've been utterly absorbed by the issues and questions and ideas of the seventies this summer.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

yesss, can't wait to begin this

[Mary-Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What strength I got from re-reading these poems!

[Mills College Library]

811 G742L 2008