A gift of poetry
p. Like many women, I have occasional bouts of gloomy dissatisfaction with the shape of my body. Some of this is due to a slight insecurity, and some to utter frustration with the manufacturers of women’s clothing, who seem to think that women are basically cylindrical like men. Mr. Bsag—who is always telling me that proper women are supposed to be my shape—found the perfect poem for me; it’s called [“A Homage to My Hips(The poem is about half way down the page)”:http://www.geocities.com/womenpoets/clifton.html], and is by Lucille Clifton. I can’t imagine a nicer gift—the poem is a wonderful celebration of the body. I found “a page”:http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1459 on which you’re supposed to be able to listen to Lucille reading her poem, but I didn’t have any luck with the RealOne audio file. That’s a shame, as I’d love to hear her reading it.
p. I’m going to copy it out and pin it up beside the mirror to remind myself to be proud of my shape.
