Sign-In
Cart
Rumors Secrets & Lies: Poems about Pregnancy, Abortion & Choice
Paperback
Poetry AnthologiesGeneral Poetry
Publisher Price: $30.00
ISBN13: 9781934695791
Publisher: Anhinga Press
Published: Oct 26 2022
Pages: 130
Weight: 1.05
Height: 0.47 Width: 9.76 Depth: 9.92
Language: English
Rumors, Secrets, & Lies is a collection of narrative poems, prose poems, flash fiction -- stories about abortions, unplanned pregnancies, adoptions, and joyous births. 116 writers, including Naomi Shihab Nye, Ellen Bass, and Alicia Ostriker, tell their stories -- how women, and men, navigated this always-charged and emotional landscape before and during Roe v. Wade.
This heart-felt collection was inspired by the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. The book was sent to the printer on Aug. 31, just two months later. Submissions arrived from all over the U.S., but also from as far away as South Korea and Israel.
The book is divided into five sections: Rumors Secrets & Lies; Choice/No Choice; Loss; Changes, Birth & Joy; and, Frontlines.
Excerpts follow:
In the late 1960s, girls just disappeared from high schools and were never seen again. One cocky boy would nod knowingly and say, Another victim, gone to the forests! -- Naomi Shihab Nye, from Rumors
Monet, Cezanne, Pissarro, Vincent, waiting room walls / are all the same, framed Impressions looking at you. / Sarah is waiting, watching a waiting room clock forget, / holding, tightly, my hand with both of hers. -- Earl S. Braggs, from The Weight of Not Answering
My blood contains the risk / of something missing, a malformation / of the head / -- or worse. Rebekah Denison Hewitt, from Karotype
I would have been dead / in twenty-four hours, / had the doctor not given me / the cruel diagnosis / Not a baby, but a lethal weapon / ready to explode inside. Janet Yolen, from It Grew
... still / she gave this child every intricate bone of both feet, / the hollow vertebrae, tiny liver, / lungs that fill with air for the first time / and begin, without a lesson, / bringing this world in and releasing it.
-- Ellen Bass, from The Human Line
what is the womb, / but the notion that / you could replicate yourself? -- Fariha Tayyab, from Blood and Glass
this baby won't come I make peace with the birds my body a branch left now all sky with the river I make peace succumb to the eddy I want this baby from the moment I knew -- Karla Van Vliet, from Delivery
and here she is / unbreathing on your chest, her skin so sheer / you can see her little blue heart slow its thump -- Kari Teicher, from Undone
Try the word abortion in a poem / it sits, a boulder in the center of the page / the other words tiptoe around it / too nervous for conversation -- Nicolette Reim, from Pen in Hand
.
Also in
Poetry Anthologies
Alaska Literary Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry
Holleman, Marybeth
Lord, Nancy
Grace Moler, Shaelene
Paperback
We Had Our Reasons: Poems by Ricardo Ruiz and Other Hardworking Mexicans from Eastern Washington
Ruiz, Ricardo
Paperback
A Bowl of Goodness: Nourishing Poems with a Side of Soup, Celebrating Community, Friendship, and Resilience
Jackson, Major
Hardcover
The Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 1: Medievals to Marlowe (Yesterday's Classics)
Quiller-Couch, Arthur
Paperback
Faeries, Sprites & Malevolent Spirits: An Anthology of Classic Poetry & Stories
Thorne, Aurora
Hardcover
Poem a Day: 366 Poems, Old and New - One for Each Day of the Year
McCosker, Karen
Albery, Nicolas
Paperback
The Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical Curriculum
Berquist, Laura M.
Paperback
Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora
Lin, Esther
Hernandez Castillo, Marcelo
Joseph, Janine
Paperback
Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women
Guzman, Sandra
Paperback
Creative Stillness: An Anthology of Poetry and Essays by the Creative Writing Hour
Makoni, Sekai
Alejandrina, Dhayana
Alaloul, Nadine
Paperback
White Teeth, Red Blood: Selected Vampiric Verses
Byron, George Gordon, 1788-
Baudelaire, Charles
Dickinson, Emily
Hardcover
Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology: Poetry and Prose on Love and Marriage
Mitchell, Stephen
Hass, Robert
Paperback
The Dharma of Poetry: How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy
Brehm, John
Paperback
On Resilience: Stories of Climate Adaptation Across Washington's Landscapes
Senechal, Lindsay
Morgan, Harriet
Paperback