Contents

CONTENTS

this way to Opening Pages

Editor’s Note: to Readers and Contributors by Diane Gilliam

Orlando is the Story of a Writer by Maxine Hong Kingston

“Maxine” image by Sun Cooper 

Body II by Jendi Reiter

“Goddess on a Shelf” image by Jennifer Lothrigel

 

Call Me Girl

“Sisters” image by Marianne Murdock

this way to Call Me Girl

 

Unfettered by Melva Sue Priddy

The Grasshopper, the Hawk, and the Squash Vine by Felice Wyndham

Float by Wendy Miles

House Dolls by Salud Mora Carriedo

Eagle Girl by Claire McCabe

Kittens by Chloe DeFilippis

Space Invaders by Roxanna Bennett

Someone Blundered by Leonore Hildebrandt

Solitary Prism by Kathleen Hellen

Three-Legged Foal by Yania Padilla Sierra

The Gift of Veneer by Melva Sue Priddy

La Guapa by Marianela Medrano

Sunday Morning by Jeanne Bryner

My Father on His Deathbed by Cynthia Robinson Young

Sweater Girl by Darlene Taylor

Angels and Saints by Chloe DeFelippis

Spring by Chloe Honum

In a Shark’s Mouth by Nicole Lacy

The Difference Between a Child and Offspring by Melva Sue Priddy

Tulip Girl by Michel Wing

Ordinary Sophie by Karen Heuler

Safety by Kimarlee Nguyen

Fat Girl by Melissa Grossman

Kitchens by Michel Wing

Driving Home by Melissa Grossman

Downed Limb by Karen Skolfield

Bouncers by Linda Melick

Ethel Finds Money by Karen Heuler

Mothers by Chloe DeFelippis

Tanka for Precious and Angie and Vivian, in Particular by M. Nzadi Keita

On Shawano Lake by Lora Keller

Space by Lisa Rosenberg

My Father’s Coat by Christy O’Callaghan-Leue

The Third Thing by Kathleen Kelly

Bonfire Girls by Roxanna Bennett

Trash Day by Therese Halscheid

Chicharon by Salud Mora Carriedo

This Girl by Melissa Grossman

Sister’s Night Walk by Abbey Chew

Nice Girl by Cindy Lynn Brown

Entwined Moon by Lauren Triola

This Girl by Ellie O’Leary

Regina by Valerie Speedwell

 

This World I Want You to Save

“Golden One” image by Lyndia Radice

this way to This World I Want You to Save

 

Black Cat in a Field by Beverly Lafontaine

The Laughing Place by Tara L. Masih

Some Rough in the Hand, Some Smooth by Marge Piercy

Airy Humus by Lynn Tudor Deming

Saint Flower by Ann L. Carter

Familiar by Sue Churchill

Snake Molting by Lora Keller

Look for Raven Pairs Flying in a Pre-Mating Ritual by Karen Skolfield

The Cows by Elizabeth Jacobson

Snake Pit by Berwyn Moore

Greenman by Maureen McQuerry

Jaguar Foretells His Own Extinction by Suzette Bishop

Break Beauty by Lisbeth Davidow

“Look at that, you son of a bitch” by Peg Duthie

At the Interface by Renée E. D’Aoust

Keep Calling My Name: Frogs, Circles and Climate
Change by Jocelyn Edelstein

There’s No Place Like Home by Rebecca Hart Olander

Vanishing Point by Melissa Grossman

At Butcher’s Slough by Simona Carini

Cathartidae by Lynn Tudor Deming

Perfect Kernel by Mary Stike

Glide by Ginny Mahar

Coastline Forecast: February by Claudia McGhee

The Voyage Out: A Poem by Marian O’Brien Paul

Swash Zone by Nancy Carol Moody

Trying to Return by Sandy Gillespie

River Broken Story by Molly Scott

Valley River by Ethel Mays

Oceans by Shirley Plummer

On a Highway of the Pacific Coast by Cheryl Buchanan

Bird Women of Wells-next-the-Sea by Ingrid Jendrzejewski

Almost Awake by Molly Scott

Ama by Nikki Russian

Against the Tide by Janet Thomas

Kantan Tasi, Song of the Sea by Mary Therese Perez Hattori

Song Eater by Ruth Thompson

About the Ocean by Ginny Bitting

Echoes by Caroline LeBlanc

The Journey by Florence Gharibian

Fields of Hveen by Barbara Sabol

The Sun Does Not Set by Mai-Lon Gittelsohn

Off the Moon Path by Jane Schulman

The Way I See It by Diane Lefer

Inside the Bowl (Asaayi Lake) by Leeanna Torres

Church by Susan Austin

On the Bluff, in the Wind by Simona Carini

And When Raven Shortcuts by Carrie Nassif

When You Reach the Red by Gabriela Frank

 

My Bones Are In You

“Generativity” image by Marsha Rosenzweig Pincus

this way to My Bones Are In You

 

No Love Letters by Helen Casey

Legacy by Carol Smallwood

The Button Box by Rebecca Olander

The Saint of Memory: The Peas by Linda Ravenswood

Flight Theory by Alison Adair

Post-Post-Traumatic Stress by Samantha Lamph

The Suitcase by Rinat Harel

Great-Grandmother Annetta by Lisa Lutwyche

Las Mujeres by Gerda Govine Ituarte

Remember This by Darlene Taylor

Interloper by Berwyn Moore

Leah by Lee Ingram

A Crown of Crows by Melissa Coss Aquino

At Lock and Dam No. 10 by Kathleen Kelly

At Least Prostitutes Bring Home Money by Sokunthary Svay

The Tulip-Flame by Chloe Honum

Autumn Melancholy with Birds by Margaret Chula

Advice from Mother on Your One Less Day by Les Bernstein

Vision by Jill Boyles

Mother’s Wishbones, No Doubt by Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

Afterlife by Cassandra Lane

The Ashsong by Kristi Carter

At the Abortion Clinic by Katharyn Howd Machan

Wanting by Molly Beer

Birthday by Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Movement by Deborah Staunton

Birth Marker by Gerda Govine Ituarte

The Birth by Linda Ravenswood

Shushed by Rebecca Roth

Always, Every, Only by Susan Sarver

Margie’s Monologue by Thelma Virata de Castro

Kymopoeia by Tina Pocha

Premonition by Faith Holsaert

At Precisely the Corner by Faith Holsaert

The Disappointed Women by Celeste Helene Schantz

Boy Child by Gerda Govine Ituarte

Outside Modern Myths: Waiting in the Car While the Teens
Battle on Game Night by Rebecca Olander

The Bones of His Face by Jan Lewbin

Spear Maiden to Persephone by Geri Lipschultz

Unwinding by Anita Barnard

There’s a Tornado in My Mind by Ann L. Carter

Maternity by Sue Churchill

Orbit without Gravity by Page Lambert

On the Eve of a Daughter’s Fortieth Birthday by Laurie Klein

A New Theology by Sheila Bender

Identity by Gerda Govine Ituarte

Breathing Room by Holly Norton

Windy by Annita Sawyer

Tissue by Berwyn Moore

Poem for My Mother by Mary Elise Bailey

Honey by Margaret Chula

The Daughter Walk by Sheila Bender

The Dreaming by Ruth Thompson

 

My Body Is Not Your Politics

“Embodiment (detail)” image by Lisa Naas

this way to My Body Is Not Your Politics

 

Why My Body by Antonia Clark

A Number of Blue Women by Anita M. Barnard

Before We Met by Zehra Imam

My Body Is Not Your Politics by Hannah Bonner

How To Love Your Body by Kelly Cressio-Moeller

The Photographer’s Model by Jeannette Miller

Molding by Sokunthary Svay

Daughter, They’ll Use Even Your Own Gaze to Wound You by Beth Ann Fennelly

There Is More Light Every Day (A Song for Uneven Fingernails) by Anna Hundert

Tijuana by Holly Norton

My Brother by Katharyn Howd Machan

What We Talk About When We Talk About Father Rucker by Cheryl Buchanan

Won’t You Be My Valentine by Elizabeth Hoover

What Sets Her Apart, Asks Jayne After Reading Another
Guinevere Poem For Me In Massachusetts by Tania Pryputniecz

What Sets Her Apart, Part II by Tania Pryputniecz

What We Call Love Is Seldom What We Fall Into by Sandy Gillespie

Body Parts by Margaret Stetler

The Untenable by Cynthia Reeser

Comfort Woman by Tanya Ko-Hong

What Is the Medicine for Rape by Trina Porte

Survivor’s Guide to Sex by Elizabeth Hoover

Not Always by Denise Miller

The Distance Between by Maureen McQuerry

How Big the Sky by Anna Hundert

Bet You Thought You Saw the Last of Me by Rachel Durs

Sooner or Later the Body Betrays Us by Beverly Lafontaine

Inside Frida Kahlo’s Body by Mercedes Lawry

Lupus Outwits Me, Declares Martial Law by Susan Eisenberg

Leap by Susan Austin

Stef’s Request by Abigail Licad

When You’ve Been Sick for a Time by Susan Austin

Small Talk at Evanston General by Beth Ann Fennelly

After the Cut by Mai-Lon Gittelsohn

The Tattoo I Did Not Get by Felicia Mitchell

When They Ask About My Face by Nancy Carol Moody

Coming Back by Beverly Lafontaine

At the Yoga Shanti Class for Cancer Survivors by Cheryl Buchanan

Crone Hands by Molly Howes

Hungers by Catherine Moore

The Pink Hairbrush by S.J. Eaves

My Skin Is Not Enough to Keep Me Warm by Beverly Lafontaine

 

If He, If She Would Only

“Divorce Journals” image by Martha Donovan

this way to If He, If She Would Only

 

Lovers in the Age of Airmail by Kelly Cressio-Moeller

The Geography of First Kisses by Karin Cecile Davidson

Recognition by Sandy Gillespie

Postcard from Sissinghurst by Denise DiMarzio

Moby Dick and the Beginning of the End by Ingrid Jendrzejewski

Persephone Tells All by Ruth Thompson

Self-Portrait as a Message From Rapunzel to the Princes
Trying to Rescue Her by Michalle Gould

Without Turning by Sandy Gillespie

There Is This Wildness by Molly Scott

The Promenade by Toni Loefler

Diner by Jackie Davis Martin

Co– by Jennifer Campbell

Schrodinger’s Wife Sells the House by Jennifer Campbell

I Promise I’m Always Careful by Alethea Alden

When a Ghost Touches Your Body by Kristi Carter

Café Des Artistes by Sally Taylor Tawil

Anatomy of a Lighthouse by Rita Anderson

Riding Past the Museum of Natural History by Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

Sustenance by Sarah Russell

Unanticipated Effects of Altitude by Jennifer Steil

Body Memories, Keening, Scars by Erin Pushman

The Bronx: A Love Story by Melissa Coss Aquino

Asian Woman by Tanya Ko Hong

Breathing Fee by Tanya Ko Hong

Reception by Meghan Giles

Aura by Ginny Rachel

The Cage Is Open by Margaret Chula

So by Martha Andrews Donovan

Open or Safe by Laura Grace

Parallax by Jeanette Miller

Denouement by Sarah Russell

Dogs and Men in Bed by Marcia Meier

Company by Muriel Nelson

Blue Moon and Bright Mars by Sandy Coomer

 

Verdad  Justicia  Amor

“Queen Without a Face” image by Monteque Pope-Le Beau

this way to Verdad Justicia Amor

 

Abnegation by Cynthia Reeser

Aunt Jemima, Eleanor Bumpers, and Sandra Bland by Breena Clarke

Power by Susan Eisenberg

The Summer Lolly by Breena Clarke

Stirring by M. Nzadi Keita

Quiet 1 With Eyes by M. Nzadi Keita

Imagine: A Love Song by Denise Miller

Making Waves in 1798 by Tammi Truax

102. by M. Nzadi Keita

Bulletin by Cheryl Clarke

Terrible Fortune Inside My Head, Grenadine by Lynne Thompson

And / Or / Against / For by Vero González

The Weight of White by Lorraine Mejia

The, a lyrical soliloquy by Chiori Miyagawa

Diaspora by Faith Holsaert

You Are Migrant by Katherine DiBella Seluja

Raqqa, Syria to Crete by Susan Shaw Sailer

The Refugee by Julie Christine Johnson

Blackbirds by Karen Heuler

Manifest Destiny by Kirin McCrory

This Land by Chloe DeFilippis

Women’s Voices by Diana Woodcock

Mothers Who Carry Their Own Water by Gerda Govine Ituarte

Spoil of War by Leatha Kendrick

Telling Stories at Tea Time by Zehra Imam

Silence on a June Morning, 1944 by Tracy Davidson

The Last Diary Entries of Septimus Warren Smith by Katherine Orr

The Late Afternoon Light Crashed All Around – a novel excerpt by Karin Cecile Davidson

L’Orange by Page Lambert

No Radio by Sokunthary Svay

Nocturne by Charlotte Muse

Backblast Area Clear by Karen Skolfield

How to Get Inside of a Ship That Won’t Let You In by Debbie Urbanski

Blood Moon by Elizabeth Jacobson

Ghazal for Emilie Parker by Carolyne Wright

Sexy Barbie Rapunzel by Deb Jannerson

The Frame of a Couch Is Not a Couch by Karen Skolfield

Good Stories by Esther Cohen

Like a Maelstrom with a Notch by Lois Marie Harrod

Smash Shop by Elizabeth Jacobson

Untitled [When have you ever heard a silent crowd?] by Monika Cooper

Where I Am Standing by Marsha Pincus

Mooring the Boat to the Dock by Sarah Black

Sculpture Under A Bridge by Debbie Hall

Home by Kristen Ringman

Leave the Barren Fields by Mary Morris

 

Sisterhood of the Barbed Wire Museum

“Acts of Bravery (Day 1 & 3)” image by Lois Bradley

this way to Sisterhood of the Barbed Wire Museum

 

We Should Have by Carrie Nassif

Before the Show by Donna J. Gelagotis Lee

Delores (Part One) by Esther Cohen

Delores (Part Two) by Esther Cohen

Third Platoon Learns Cover & Concealment by Karen Skolfield

Sista-Girl by Louise McKinney

She Whispers Korean in My Ear by Tanya Ko Hong

Bracelets by G. Evelyn Lampart

Unity Orders by Kate Simonian

Coming in Second by Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

Black Swans: A Poem for Voices by Katharyn Howd Machan

Some Secrets by Debbie Urbanski

Small Bodies by Alexandra Reisner

You Accompany Parents Through Winter by Alice Cone

Tortoise by Naomi Westerman

Anne Frankenstein by Deborah Thompson

Wild Faith by Karla Morton

Woman Warriors: Babae/Babaylan by Aimee Suzara

The Woman Who Picked Me Up by Antonia Clark

Blue Goddesses by Laura Chaignon

Dada Does Dominoes by Glenda Reed

The Jugular by Karla Morton

My South by Wendy Carlisle

Grip by Lauren Camp

Indra’s Net by Ji Hyang Padma

No Milk Over Tea by Zehra Imam

Freshman by Sue Churchill

Agoraphobia by Susan Austin

Woman Finds Her Face by Lois Marie Harrod

Persephone by Elizabeth Moller

Bipolar Girls on a Manic High Are My Addiction by Stephanie Heit

This Poem Will Refuse to Confess by Emily Regier

Lines by Yania Padilla Sierra

Ace of Pentacles by Roxanna Bennett

Stealin’ from the Dead by K. Bruce Florence

Stones by Michel Wing

Untitled [the dark knows this] by Jennifer Patterson

Her American Life by Sokunthary Svay

The Siege of Ennis by Eileen O’Leary

Mrs. Ramsey by Rebecca Ruth Gould

She Shall Soon Find a Way by Julie Babcock

Wanting for Grace by Donna J. Gelagotis Lee

Final Crescent by Jane Schulman

Rapunzel Brings Her Women’s Studies Class to the Tower by Susan J. Erickson

 

A Voice Answering a Voice

“Knock” image by Dawn Banghart

this way to A Voice Answering a Voice

 

Living with Ghosts by Ellen McLaughlin

Quotations [and Responses] by Sandy Gillespie

Hymnal by Linda Ravenswood

Anna’s Hut at Komarovo by Trina Gaynon

Celebrate for Anais Nin by Nancy Shiffrin

What Woolf Dares Us to Write by Lauren Rusk

Her Poem, the Oak Tree by Tammi Truax

To the Lighthouse by Kim Hamilton

Virginia Woolf’s Hollyhocks by Deborah Doolittle

What Remains by Maggie Stetler

The Only Surviving Recording of Virginia Woolf’s Voice by Alison Townsend

To Virginia by George Ella Lyon

The Poem by Diane Furtney

Reading Virginia Woolf in the Nineties by Kristie Letter

The Power to Contemplate: An Artist Responds to Virginia Woolf by Jennifer Carson

Women, Windows by Lauren Rusk

People as Evidence by Lauren Camp

Studio Visit: Later by Susanna Lang

Droom by Margaret Chula

Pentimento by Catherine Moore

Color Coded by Lauren Camp

Practice by Alison Hicks

Contact Dance in the Mission District by Dawn Banghart

Copper by Caroline LeBlanc

Make a Body by Nancy Meyer and Janet Trenchard

Audre Lorde’s Unfinished Business: Working Through Religious Resistance to Cancer
Treatment by Pamela Yetunde

… and Stones by Gillian Barlow

Confessions of a Family Woman by Chivas Sandage

Mad Bad Sad Woman by Audrey Chin

WAVES: AROHO Retreat 2015 by Kristi Crutchfield Cox

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman by Patricia Farewell

A Meditation on the Wave by Sarah Hahn Campbell

Against by Vero González

Writing in Mothertime by Geri Lipschultz

Pollination by Barbara Ann Yoder

Last Class by Shawn Lacy

She’s Got Some Nerve by Janet Fitch

Retro Causation by Peggy Dobreer

Fragments of Anna Dickinson by Sarah Hahn Campbell

Terrible Girls by Jennifer Patterson

What It Takes by Karen McElmurray

Snatch by Christine Wade

Re-interpreting the Carved Revenge on Your Own Back by Shauna Osborn

Against My Own Current; Out in Plain Air by Lisa Lutwyche

The Task by Alison Hicks

Erotics of Making by Barbara Rockman

Counting and What’s Counted On by Robyn Hunt

Unmaking the Form by Marya Hornbacher

 

Now You Must Love This Too

“Dragging Virginia Woolf’s Body Out of the Ouse” image by Christy Sanford

this way to Now You Must Love This Too

 

Old Woman by Ruth Rifka

Bernard Brings a Drink by Jill Barth

Woman Waiting by Antonia Clark

Elegy to a Woman Writer, A Friend by Barbara Rockman

When the Moonlight by Berwyn Moore

Visit to Sete by Lynn Tudor Deming

Untitled jisei series by Shirley Plummer

In Memory Of by Peg Duthie

Lady Lazarus by Jacqueline Doyle

Cycle for Nembetsu Udori, Festival to Summon
Ancestral Spirits by Judy Schavrien

Singing at the End by Molly Scott

Plunge by Margaret Chula

Responsibility by Shirley Plummer

October Ends by Marsha Howland

Why You’re Afraid of the Road by Charlotte Muse

Beginning the Journey by Ruth Thompson

Karma by Felicia Mitchell

The Mirror by Lytton Bell

Promise by Barbara Sullivan

At the Whaling Museum, Point Lobos by Ruth Thompson

The Vigil by Dipika Guha

Last Bus by Lynn Tudor Deming

Incantation by Maureen Cummins

Bring Me the God of Mrs. Garcia by Susan Kelly-DeWitt

Where God Lives by Jeanne Bryner

Dogma by Cynthia Reeser

Host by Roz Spafford

St. Lunatic by Gayle Bell

Water Women by Alla Bozarth

Isles of the Wise by Sharon Suzuki-Martinez

Village Shakti by Verena Tay

The Ghigau Women by Sun Cooper

Abbey of Our Lady at Gethsemani by Sherry Chandler

Questions for the Angel Gabriel II by Anna Hundert

Mother of the Disappeared by Roz Spafford

A Village of Their Own by Niloufar Behrooz

Safe House by Jude Rittenhouse

Poem as a Field of Action by Berwyn Moore

The Arbor of Chance by Peggy Dobreer

Summer at Twenty-One by Eva M. Schlesinger

Next to You, Permanence by Elizabeth Jacobson

Horseshoe Crab Fandango by Nancy Krim

Stone Love by Joanna Clapps Herman

Call by Alla Bozarth

Psalm of Fire and Water by Cristina Baptista

Women’s Work by Jude Rittenhouse

Doors by Dawn Banghart

Patience by Mary Elise Bailey

Sleeping Under Snow by Susan Austin

The Last I Saw Mitsou by Karin Cecile Davidson

On the Need to Re-establish Sovereignty Over My Own Heart by Trina Porte

Rebuilding the ’63 Beetle by Nancy Krim

There Was a Door by Leatha Kendrick

Selkie by Sandra Cross

The Potential of Yellow Roses by Susan J. Erickson

Adie by Jay Merill

Woman of Myriad Seeds by Margaret Stetler

She Let Herself Go by George Ella Lyon

How will you begin? by Barbara Rockman

The Beginner by Janet Fitch

Writing the Dress by Barbara Rockman

 

Waves Returning: A Q&A With Maxine Hong Kingston

this way to Waves Returning: A Q&A With Maxine Hong Kingston