Ok, one more day of poetry, I couldn’t resist. I’m going off the beaten path to a generally lesser-known poet, Judy Grahn. Actually, she was quite well known in the 60s and 70s, very active in the feminist poetry movement. She is a lesbian feminist and her work is unabashedly reflective of that. She is perhaps best known for her long poem “A Woman is Talking to Death.” It is a powerful and moving poem, especially the final section which concludes with the line:

wherever our meat hangs on our own bones
for our own use
your pot is so empty
death, ho death
you shall be poor

Her poetry also tends to utilize mythology, images and metaphors of weaving and spiders, and riddles and puns. Her book, The Queen of Wands (sadly out of print) features a number of poems about Helen of Troy in various incarnations including that of Marilyn Monroe. Tonight’s poem is from The Queen of Wands and is one of her riddle poems. Read it out loud for best effect if you can.

Knit the knot: a riddle

The directions said:
to knit the knot known and
not to knit the not known,
knit the knot known
to the unknown knot
and not the knot known to
unknot the unknown
and knot the knit;
to unknot the known and knit
the unknown, unknit the
knot known and know the knit;
to know how to not know
the unknown, knit the knot.
Gnaw your fingers to the bone
until you understand the plot.

It sort of has a fairy tale aura to it, doesn’t it? Like Rumpelstiltskin might jump out at any moment and laugh maniacally.

Adrienne Rich has written an essay about Grahn that appears in Rich’s collection On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Grahn has a website where you can find out more information about her and her work as well as read some poems.

Tomorrow I will very likely be writing about a Roberto Manguel essay I read recently about the ideal library. That will be something fun to think about on a Friday evening.