Include women's voices

  Today it is International Women's day. My blog, "Poetry with blues", has honored female authors and songwriters during the first sixty-seven days of 2015. In total, I have published contributions from 160 women.
  My main aim has been to change the perception of women writers. Still in 2015, it is mainly texts by men as you will find in the literature anthologies. The relationship is approximately 75% for men and 25% for women. I want to change that fact.

  Today I publish the name and picture of thirty of my favorites. Several of them have had a significant impact on both the literary world as in society at large. I also give you another few poems to celebrate Women's day with.
  I have had no problems in finding good poetry written by women, so I don't understand why publishing companies do not realize the beauty and power of women's texts. Come on!

The list is sorted by year of birth.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Todd-Bingham Picture Collection
ca 1848

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
Photo: Alvin Langdon Coburn
1913

Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
Photo from 1925.

Edith Södergran (1892-1923)
Photo from 1915.

Marina Tsvetajeva (1892-1941)
Photo: Max Voloshin, 1911.

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

Karin Boye (1900-1941)
Photo from Ulf Boye.
1940

Anais Nïn (1903-1977)
Portrait by Elsa Dorfman.
1970's

Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002)
Photo: ca 1960

Doris Lessing (1919-2013)
Photo: Elke Wetzig
2006

Anne Sexton (1928-1974)
Photo: Elsa Dorfman

Eeva Kilpi (born 1928)
Photo from 2008.

Even nature gives you no choice 

When you have seen a cloud 

in the lap of a pond; 

and the moon 

between the waterlilies; 

inevitably you are at the mercy 

of your own soul. 

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)
Photo: K. Kendall
1980

Mary Ann Hoberman (born 1930)
Photo from www.maryannhoberman.com

Anne Stevenson (born 1933)
Photo: Simon James
2009

Inger Christensen (1935-2009)
Photo from 2008.

Judith Nicholls (born 1941)
Photo: Caroline Forbes

Sounds good!
(Collins Educational, 1994)



Sausage sizzles
Crispbreads crack
Hot dog hiss
And flapjacks snap!
Bacon boils
And fritters fry
Apples squelch
In apple pie.
Baked beans bubble
Gravy grumbles
Popcorn pops
And stomach rumbles...

I’M HUNGRY! 

Suzanne Brøgger (born 1944)
Photo from Twitter.

Kristina Lugn (born 1948)
Photo from 2008.

I need silence

(from To catch life anew / translated by Eva Claeson. Durham, 2006.)

I need silence

and solitude

and a well-fitting word supply.

I need a secret

and an enduring sense of reality.

My assignment right now

is to try to free myself

from my own formulations.

Living is a work of sorrow.

If you don't understand that

you will never be happy.

Rita Dove (born 1952)
Photo: Fred Viebahn
2004

Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955)
Photo: Magnus Manske
2009

Lynda Barry (born 1956)
Photo: Guillaume Paumier
2010

Madonna (born 1958)
Photo: David Shankbone
2008

Marjory Wentworth (born 1958)
Photo from South Carolina Office of the Governor.

Sade [Helen Adu], (born 1959)
Photo: Thilo Parg
2011

Björk Gudmundsdottir (born 1965)
Photo: Georges Biard
2000

Lidija Dimkovska (born 1971)
Photo: Stroblond

Jewel Kilcher (born 1974)
Photo from 2009.

Paloma Faith (born 1981)
Marple Bridge Photography
2013

Valzhyna Mort (born 1981)
Photo: Doug Barber
2008