The poetry canon does women few favours. Over the years, I’ve had to seek out and find my own choice femmes to balance out the bookshelves. Never feeling the pull of Plath or Dickinson, I went from Sappho to Aphra Behn, arriving at Judith Wright and Jennifer Rankin, skipping back to visit in on Muriel Rukeyser, Amy Clampitt, H.D. I’ve rocked up at Marianne Moore’s doorstep again and again, and ventured up the hill; onto Barbara Guest, Louise Glück and eventually home, via Jill Jones, Joanne Burns, Emma Lew. Dorothy Porter. And onwards, forwards!
Today being International Womens Day, I’ve curated a short selection, some familiar to me, some new, of work by Australian female poets from the Cordite archives. I encourage you to have a gander, then find your own.
