Project Boast

Rachel Bentham

Description

65 poems by 29 women poets

Informations

• Publié par: Triarchy Press
• Date de parution: 08 mars 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781911193456
• Langue: English

Extrait

Quiet please .

Published in this first edition in 2018 by:
Triarchy Press
Axminster, England
[e-mail]
www.triarchypress.net
This complete edition © Rachel Bentham and Alyson Hallett, 2018.
Each contribution remains the copyright © 2018 of its named author.
The right of each contributor to be identified as the author of her contribution has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
All rights reserved.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-911193-41-8
Acknowledgements
The editors would like to thank the poets in this anthology for their poems and permissions given to reprint poems that have already been published. They would like to thank Tom Williams for all the amazing work he has done on designing the book. Thanks also to everyone who works consciously and fearlessly towards creating a more equal society for all.
All profits from this book will be given to the Malala Fund.
Contents
Introduction
Preface
Poetry Permissions and Credits
self-puff - Caroline Carver
If Hestia had Designed a Backbone for Atlas - Fiona Hamilton
Mrs Guppy - Alyson Hallett
Turning Fifty - Anne Caldwell
Journey With My Jewish Friend - Nazand Begikhani
Pewley Down - Jean Hathaway
Home - Dikra Ridha
Sergei Kuriokhin Wasn t My Lover - Victoria Field
Blooded - Deborah Harvey
the trouble with you is you won t be told - Rachel Bentham
The Remove - Judy Brown
Masks - Penelope Shuttle
Nancy s Star Turn - Alwyn Marriage
The Wood and the Trees - Rachel Bentham
A Girl Like Do a - Nazand Begikhani
Brush Strokes - Daisy Proctor
My Field - Sally Evans
Don t Say You Love Me, Daddy - Janet Paisley
Hurricane Mama - Caroline Carver
Greenham Common, 1985 - Julie-ann Rowell
RP RIP - Alwyn Marriage
Do Nothing - Lucy English
Premature - Anne Caldwell
Self-Portrait as Katharine of Aragon - Penelope Shuttle
i am a work of art - Cara Squires
My Father Was No Ordinary Man - Clare Shaw
Dawn Chorus - Janet Paisley
Unforgiven - Dikra Ridha
Spared - Katrina Naomi
Miss Ballantine s Salmon - Alyson Hallett
Staying Power - Sally Evans
Crossing - Jennifer Wong
Lineage - Lynn Davidson
Confession - Arundhathi Subramaniam
Objets Sacr s de Jeanne d Arc - Julie-ann Rowell
Hipster Central - Lucy English
Boasting Sonnet - Katrina Naomi
I often think - Penelope Shuttle
Dr Bentham is Out of the Office: - Rachel Bentham
Terms and Conditions - Tania Hershman
What My Grandmother Tells Me in Dreams - Fiona Hamilton
The Tears Come Easy to Kate - Gill Hague and Kate
Bathurst Pool - Claire Williamson
she - Cara Squires
Wildwood - Deborah Harvey
We Prayed for a Man Without a Beard - Judy Brown
Rome - Penelope Shuttle
Here s the Thing - Alyson Hallett
The Time It Takes To Set - Tania Hershman
Words For My Daughter - Janet Paisley
Speaking to the Otter - Lynn Davidson
The Wildlife We Found - Daisy Proctor
My Mother Pictured Amongst Tobacco Leaves - Nazand Begikhani
Jazz - Fiona Hamilton
The Mad Cow Talks Back - Jo Shapcott
ode to cellulite - Khairani Barokka
The Apostle, Mary Magdalene - Julie-ann Rowell
A True Story - Gill Hague
Hats - Jean Hathaway
No, I Do Not Tango - Tania Hershman
The Confessions - Judy Brown
Learning to Sound - Lynn Davidson
The Walk - Claire Williamson
My Mother was a Verified Miracle - Clare Shaw
Song for Catabolic Women - Arundhathi Subramaniam
Checklist for Speaking of Oneself
Contributor Biographies
Introduction
We began this project because of Sarah Guppy, a Victorian engineer and inventor who lived in Bristol. One of the things she is best known for is devising a bridge without arches or sterlings that was less at risk of being washed away. Her contribution to the design of the suspension bridge in Bristol is widely debated, and as yet seems to be inconclusive. We do know, however, that she had conversations with Brunel and went on to make models for some of his designs.
Sarah Guppy also designed a samovar that made tea and cooked eggs; a method for preventing barnacles from clinging to a ship s hull (this barnacle buster was taken on by the Royal Navy and proved financially rewarding for Guppy); and an exercise bed for women to use at home as it was considered inappropriate for women to exercise in public.
There are no statues of Sarah Guppy, no plaques that recount her inventions. In our culture, it has often been deemed acceptable for women and their achievements to be buried, covered over, dismissed. Sarah Guppy herself once said: it is unpleasant to speak of oneself - it may seem boastful particularly in a woman .
Mary Beard s fantastic book, Women Power, A Manifesto , traces the history of women being discouraged from speaking in public spaces all the way back to Homer. Speaking is a gendered issue, and we wanted to ask if this was still the case. Are women still finding that it s unpleasant to speak of themselves? Are we still self-censoring for fear of being judged as boastful? How much has really changed?
It became our dream to put together an anthology of poems by a wide range of women poets responding to these questions. We wanted to create an anthology whose platform is generous and far-reaching, a space where poets could approach the idea of speaking in whatever way appealed to them. Thus Project Boast was born. Subjects range from Rome to the dawn chorus, from a mad cow to confessions, from catabolic women to a weasel. Some poets remarked how hard it was to speak of themselves. Some let rip with a formidable self. Some take an inventive approach, while some speak through their poems with a direct, quiet authority.
We wanted to provoke all these voices, to seek them out and encourage them. We wanted to suggest that confidence can come from speaking out. We wanted to update Sarah Guppy s assertion to: It is good for women to speak of themselves - it is life-changing and vital for a healthy society and culture . If we can do this, we might see statues and plaques of all the forgotten women starting to appear in our cities. We might begin to address the things that need to be addressed and take another step along the long, long road to equality.
Rachel Bentham Alyson Hallett
Preface
On Boasting
I know that boasting is wrong. But like so many wrong things, that has never stopped me from doing it. My dad was a boastful man and as a child I thought that the point of every anecdote was to present yourself in a beaming light and, at the end, prove how witty and remarkable you were and how you d gotten the better of the other fella. In later years, once my son was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum, I realised that Dad was too, and that I was probably somewhere close by. Those on the spectrum share a misunderstanding of social clues. Aha! My saving grace. I didn t know or understand that women were supposed to put themselves down. I didn t know that an essential characteristic of being female was modesty. I remember finding out. I was teaching a Creative Writing workshop. During the introductions one woman said that she was probably hopeless and much too old to be giving writing a go. The group laughed but I was aghast. I mentioned that I thought words mattered and had always tried to use the most exciting, saucy and favourable ones to introduce myself. A man in the group immediately piped up with: Oh but most men prefer a self-deprecating woman. He then mentioned that he was her husband. (No doubt coming along to make sure she didn t express herself too much). I blushed and managed to hold my tongue for two minutes while I felt chastened, but I have to admit that the shame of being what most men don t prefer didn t last long.
Maybe the days when women have to stand looking in a mirror in a Ladies loo, trying to out-do one another in self-criticism are behind us. ( Oh God look at my hair Your hair? Just look at my thighs/fat bum/spots. ) There was a Maya Angelou poem I loved: Phenomenal woman, that s me . I met Maya Angelou once (1985, I interviewed her for Spare Rib ) and of course I found her pride not shameful or something to be judged, but inspirational.
Here are many other phenomenal women speaking of themselves. Speaking up, speaking out. Enjoy
Jill Dawson
Poetry Permissions and Credits
Many thanks to the publishers and poets for permission to reprint the following poems in this anthology :

My Mother Pictured Amongst Tobacco Leaves , by Nazand Begikhani, was first published in Bells of Speech (Ambit, London, 2006)
We Prayed for a Man Without a Beard , by Judy Brown, from Crowd Sensations (Seren Books, 2016)
The Confessions , by Judy Brown, from Loudness (Seren Books, 2011)
Turning Fifty , by Anne Caldwell, from Painting the Spiral Staircase (Cinnamon Press, 2016)
Premature , by Anne Caldwell, from Talking With The Dead (Cinnamon Press, 2011)
Hipster Central and Do Nothing , by Lucy English, from The Book of Hours poetry film project: http://thebookofhours.org
Wildwood by Deborah Harvey, from Breadcrumbs (Indigo Dreams, 2016)
The Time It Takes To Set ; No, I Do Not Tango ; Terms And Conditions by Tania Hershman, from Terms Conditions (Nine Arches Press, 2017)
RP RIP , by Alwyn Marriage, won the Leeds Peace Poetry Prize in 2015.
Nancy s Star Turn , by Alwyn Marriage, was shortlisted in the Poetry on the Lake competition, 2016.
Spared was written by Katrina Naomi when she was writer-in-residence at the Arnolfini, in response to the exhibition Emotional Archaeology by the artist Daphne Wright. Spared was first published on the Arnolfini website.
Dawn Chorus , by Janet Paisley, from Sang fur the Wandert (