A Woman’s Magic: A Poem from Audre Lorde

A line from Audre Lorde’s poem, “A Woman Speaks.”

It is Women’s History Month. Because of this, I wanted to focus on poetry that embraces and shows appreciation for this beautiful population of humanity.

This week’s poem is “A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde. It is every bit magical. When I read it out loud, at first, my voice faltered because I was afraid of how my own personal voice took up space.

But then I read it out loud again.

I am writing my first newsletter on Substack about voice (you can read it here) which is about how imperfect and difficult I have found the chronology of my voice’s maturation. To this day, I still struggle with how I talk and sing. But the more I read normal stuff out loud, the more I allow my voice to take up space, the more I grow stronger as a woman.

Because that is the magic of being a woman. To speak up on behalf of others. To ground yourself in the real and show your empathy muscles.

In past posts, I’ve focused on some technical aspects of poetry. But after reading some articles and books about the education of poetry, I’ve learned that it’s one thing to analyze poetry. It’s another to have a poetic voice. Readers and students have complained that their English teachers have made them dissect poetry until it was no longer fun and beautiful.

And that is not my intent.

I want you to know and embrace the poetic voice. It is not something to fear or ignore. It is powerful and loud, can move a crowd to emotion. So we are going to take it back to its roots; we are going to practice reading poetry out loud, find its natural rhythm. See where our voices and bodies feel the weight of the words. Breathe in the emotion, breathe out the language.

For this reason, I will include a video or audio recording of the featured poem biweekly. So here is Audre Lorde reading “A Woman Speaks.”

I ask of you, how do you speak? What is your relationship to language and voice? Some of us are more confident and enjoy the nuances of language; others are skeptics and refuse to take the spotlight. How does your voice influence who you are? Write a poem or two that explores voice. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable or weird; that is your voice. No one else’s.

Stay tuned for more on reading and writing materials for poetic voices. Thank you for reading. Choose love and peace y que te cuides 🤍