On Thinking for Oneself

The author recommends it,
& tenders her readers
beneficent assistance by thus
beginning & concluding
this book’s briefest chapter




From For Girls (& Others), Bloof 2008

Pride in Having Small Feet

Overstrung
ailing
puny
inefficient
unhappy
slimsy girls
bustled & padded

With such carriages as these
equipoise is nearly impossible

•

Mental beauties
open yourselves
     o   pen

Being “all used up”
every day for weeks is wrong

& doubles
the myriad feminine dangers
of nervous force

•

I, too,
without a word of excuse
formerly lived as an unmitigated ninny

Linger upon the chaise
of this simple lesson:

Might you unlearn
to resent the joy
the world takes in you,

learn
to return its gaze



From For Girls (& Others), Bloof 2008

No Slight Affliction, as Many a Woman Will Declare

You can carry, girls,
a little distance

your influence
to the new side

your awakened study
of formation, requirements

•

First then, girls, you should
fasten onto your shoulders

a strap for purpose,
for industrious earnest

pressure, for attending
to the demands of nature

Think of it
as a uniform

outside of which
you’d be too apart

•

All rooms have doors
& also windows

I haven’t actually
heard that said, but

a draft might come
at right angles

toward the animal
part of you,

the portion you’ve
bitten raw




From For Girls (& Others), Bloof 2008

The Head Needs Rather to Be Kept Cool

Situate yourself
alone for longer
than an hour apart
without speaking

The air wants words in it

The house around
adrift, surrounds
surges close

In front of the millinery
the street is spread
with late spring snow,
bristles with girls in hats

Unfold this shuttered voice

& when solitude’s good pupil
chooses unfrivolous company
endeavor to
                         bare it



From For Girls (& Others), Bloof 2008

The Young Lady Must

Grow your frilliest beauty
on your dearest fanny

Blow your daintiest trumpet
on your weariest wonder

& never ever let them
see you perspire

•

Furthermore

if life has not yet
made you its own trusted confidante
take heart

The world is like a girl
who rivals you in grace
& good looks

Go cautious
in your motions & she
will come around to call you friend



From For Girls (& Others), Bloof 2008

Opening Address

We shall now begin
the study of girls
upon whom the universe
bestows fullness
in all the right places.

A vigorous strength
can belong to a real lady
& her natural waist.
Young men ought to be taught
to appreciate her unbound form
&exquisite mental
susceptibility.

There is much to say
upon the body & mind
of young woman
& so I present you
47 chapters to follow
after this gentle foreword.
I will endeavor to illustrate
more delicate matters
in a manner suitable for
even the most innocent.

Here it befalls us to wonder
upon this first astonishment:
A girlhood is an extreme gift
of boobies & hips
of blossom lips &
the good sense
not to use any of them.


From For Girls (& Others), Bloof 2008

Women's History Month

A few years ago, I wrote a book "about" certain pieces of women's history, especially how Women have long been the recipients of the World's well-intentioned advice. (We need "benevolent guidance," or a "firm hand," or "a moral education," or possibly something more modern like a "makeover" or "a series of condescending blog comments explaining why our thoughts, feelings and appearance are wrong," you know.)

I think I will post a poem from it, each day in March.

If you are interested in reading more "about" it, please go here and here and here.

The advice in the book ranges in time from 1882 to the present. Here is the preface, which I stole from the antique volume that inspired (infected?) me.

PREFACE.

     THE author of this book lays no claim to originality of subject-matter. She has nothing new to say. She does, however, claim originality upon one ground, that of making selections from the writings and teachings of others,and from observation and experience;that of culling here and there knowledge, facts, motives, ideas, and grouping them into practical form. Seeking to make the material for instruction as complete as possible, she has seized upon and appropriated anything which could contribute to the general design. She has only sought to adapt what others have said to the good of the class for whom she has written.
     She herewith submits her efforts to the common sense of her audience, and the common need of our common natures.