Inspiration
I’m sitting here on the couch, flipping through the cable channels, not finding much of anything to hold my interest. On the coffee table sits my Macbook, beckoning me to turn off the tv and write something. Anything. Just a couple of lines, and hopefully, the rest will magically come flooding out. (Of course, it never really works this way).
After watching a few minutes of Anderson Cooper 360, I give in to the urge to create, and turn off the television, walk over to the small wooden bookshelf where I keep my various books of poetry and erotica, and blindly reach for a book. It turns out to be an author I haven’t read for a very long time, Sandra Cisneros. More specifically, her crazy hot book of poetry, Loose Woman.
One of my favorite poems in the book, “You Bring Out the Mexican in Me,” is a beautiful, passionate, gritty, paranoid, erotic ride of a poem:
“I want to rattle and rent you in two.
I want to defile you and raise hell.
I want to pull out the kitchen knives,
dull and sharp, and whisk the air with crosses…”
And in “Full Moon and You’re Not Here,” she is the mistress waiting for her lover to come:
“Full moon and you’re not here.
I take off the slip,
the silver bangles.
You’re in love with my mind.
But sometimes, sweetheart,
a woman needs a man
who loves her ass.”
I remember reading this book for the first time and thinking: “Damn, who IS this woman?” She smokes cigars, yells and curses her American lovers in Spanish, describes her period in graphic detail, and does it with a lyrical wit that Sonia Sanchez would envy. A fellow poet had recommended the book, and I thought at best, it would be a good way to spend an evening, a few glasses of wine, and some decent poetry. I had no idea what I was in store for–it caught me completely off-guard, in a good way.
So now, years later, seeking inspiration, I sit in my living room with a glass of Cabernet, reading Loose Woman again and remembering our first date, hoping to get lucky again.
Black Satin 
Balls deep on a first date, huh? My introduction to her was more like an assault, a surprise attack. It was in a creative writing class and the professor brought this in the day after we focused on something by Gerald Stern. Though the campus was diverse, the class was not, and like the school, the students in the class were very conservative. No one was ready for that poem; but even now that I’m familiar with the poem and poet, I still find myself unprepared for it… for her. That poem made me unafraid of honesty in my writing.
Oh, I meant to tell you, there is a link on npr with her reading the poem (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1866475)
Good to see you Court!
I feel the same way about her writing, there’s no pretense at all, just raw honesty. It’s helped me to try to do the same in my writing as well. That’s an interesting story about your writing class, It’s good when teachers shake things up like that with something unexpected. Oh, and thanks for the link, I enjoyed listening to her interview:)
I LOVE Sandra Cisneros! Have only read her prose, so thanx 4 turning me onto her poetry! 🙂 Now, u gonna share some of YOUR sensual goodness? U know I been sooo thirsty for it! 😉
Disregard that last part… don’t know why I didn’t see your poetry earlier. Guess I was so famished I overlooked it thinking it would be RIGHT at the top! 🙂
You’re welcome CAP, I think you’ll really enjoy Loose Woman. That book has been a great inspiration for me. Let me know what you think when you read it.