“Much ink has been dedicated to the meaning of that sentence, to what it means to ‘become’ a woman. This book is dedicated to the question of how Beauvoir became herself” (pp. 3-4). Waiting for Beauvoir “Unfinished business” by Gordon Bennett is one of the most poignant, political, painful and passionate exhibitions I have seen….
Page 21: A thought experiment
The number 21 demands attention What if I decided that number 21, reducible to three, thereby naturally imaginative, creative and optimistic, was worth paying attention to? And, what if turning to page 21 of books written by feminist writers I adore, a particular sentence demanded my attention? Then, what if I took that sentence on…
Gorgeous and compelling
Soaked by sentences on a rainy Sunday morning Trying not to wake the slumberous body beside me, I reach over and quietly pick up my recently purchased copy of Charlotte Wood’s [1]A fiercely eco-feminist friend and voracious reader often recommends books she has recently read she thinks I might like. For weeks Renee kept saying,…
Part two: A photo essay from far away
15th January, 2023: Stanley Street, Liverpool In a grey backstreet, Eleanor Rigby sits on a stone bench where a memory of her and so many others have been. She sits down next to her as close as she can to pick up Eleanor’s silent words living in a dream, waiting at the window,…
A photo essay from far away, part one
“Thought is patchy and material. It does not find magical closure or even seek it, perhaps because it’s too busy just trying to imagine what’s going on”. “The act of description, then, is a peering, accidental glimpse of what matters” (Kathleen Stewart, 2007, p. 5; 2016, p. 31). A light that tries to write “In…
Within a marmalade sandwich
Hints of passion in a pocket of joy I was recently asked to be the keynote speaker at the 2022 Faculty of Education Awards for Excellence and Recognition night at Southern Cross University. The Awards committee was looking for someone who would deliver a congratulatory and inspirational speech to the student winners, their guests, and…
Resku me: Research and poetic entanglements in 17 syllables
“When you’re working in a strict form, sometimes a certain magic takes place. You realize that the content is finding itself in the form. The form gives you your poem” (Late in the day, 2015, p. 80). Ursula K. Le Guin Feminist, science fiction and fantasy writer, poet and non-fiction essayist In…
The ragged vitality of teeth
The rawness of gums The day it happened; I knew for certain. The flesh of Mum’s memories were no longer rooted in her mind, and neither were her teeth in her mouth. When I walked in, she was sitting unshowered and crying on her unmade bed in a worn pale pink chenille dressing gown. She…
Writing in-form: A woman’s hand
Just write, just write, just write I am reading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing down the bones: Freeing the writer within—well actually, I’m listening to her read it to me. Mostly on my way to work as company during the four-hour round car trip there and back, sometimes when I am out walking in the quiet hours before…
A carrier bag of fruit: Logans, blues, strawberries, oranges and apples
I may never be happy, but tonight I am content. Nothing more than an empty house, the warm hazy weariness from a day spent setting strawberry runners in the sun, a glass of cool sweet milk, and a shallow dish of blueberries bathed in cream. When one is so tired at the end of a…
What’s love got to do with it?
Here she is – my gal, the thinker. Wondering and writing with the words of Jeanette Winterson in 12 Bytes and those gifted to the world by Ursula Le Guin in The lathe of heaven; moved to wonder and write by bell hooks in All about love: New visions, always by Dorothy Allison but this time in Two…