Feminimalist Volume 1 Fall/Winter 2017

FEMINIMALIST VOLUME 1, FALL/WINTER 2017

CORINNE ETHEL

all work belongs to the artist poetry and images by corinne ethel copyright 2017

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Thank you to my friends and my teachers,

and friends who are teachers

to women and writers, and women writers who came before me and inspired, boldly telling their stories

to Nature, my greatest teacher and the Moon.

About the work: This debut volume of poetry touches on the themes of the divine and wild feminine sexual assault the four elements personification of nature intuition pillage of the earth and women women as a force of nature the female form reclaiming one’s power

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“I feel the winds of the West, outbreath, letting go of my leaves, all I do not need.

Into the darkness of the fall sunset, I release, receive, getting ready for the Silence�

Winds of the West, Ayla Nereo

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“If you listen, there is something being said to you, and that is what you write down...What comes to you externally has already been told. That which is vital, which is unique, is already within you.”

Eling Kagge “To compose poetry is about listening” Jon Fosse

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I. The muscles in the throat are the same as those of a woman’s cervix.

It is why men so deeply fear a woman who uses her voice.

I will sing out every last ounce of you and the trees will bear witness.

- Telling your story is a birth

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II.

Earth: Mountain Curves Overlooking the valley below a winding road cars hugging mountain curves from here, they appear to glide smoothly the way I’d want to have someone hug my curves not white-knuckled with fear but with surrender, joy, presence not wanting to be anywhere else except gliding the pads of their fingertips along my mountain curves The canyons of my body the way my stomach retracts when touched the valley between my breasts Touch my heart Linger there put your ear to it like a soft wind or a faint whisper in the distance but linger there.

Come back to this place and you will find that the whisper grows louder into a voice as you attune to it as you gently crack open the geode of my heart and allow the light, luminous to fill the canyon floor, the sky Even my curves become illuminated 8

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III.

Air: Guided There is only ever this moment, this breath.

And this and this and this and this.

“Go,” your heart will say.

“Rise,” the moon will say.

So you lay down on the soft earth and surrender, which is, to melt into that which is greater than you.

And then you rise.

And then you go.

Go, in such a way, that, with each step, you feel the lightness of your toes and a grounding through the ball of your foot.

Run towards your home, which is rushing towards you.

But you don’t meet in the middle— only there.

There at that place which is not a junction.

Later on, you will come to a junction, but right now-this.

The certainty of the beat of your heart which said, “Go.” The breath that said, “Here.”

And so you breathe in and your soul says, “Here.

I am here.”

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IV. Fire: Roots of a New Foundation I am a wildfire I don’t need to be put out I am part of the cycle But I do need to be contained Wrap your arms around me Lean in You must not be afraid to touch the flames Temper me with water But let me run my course While I burn in all my glory Exposing my charred heart And then A new ecosystem flourishes.

I am the cycle.

All of the rage Locked up and layered In the depths of my gut Pops off in the middle of the night I’ve been smoldering for years But now I am charging Towards your home Led by the moonlight, We howl together Nothing grows in every season.

Sometimes you must knock the house down maybe even destroy the foundation but in time, new roots will grow

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When the last flame fizzles out in the rain that inevitably comes the final breath of smoke spirals upward.

Pause It is so silent that it rings in your ears Savor this Silence is a song I know all the words to Silence is the earth’s deepest secret Silence is what caused this fire But now we begin anew.

What I’m saying is, Beauty and destruction are synonymous.

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V. Water: A Dammed Heart Is A Damned Heart I have given myself out and not been filled, but I’ll no longer be dammed (damned) Remove the blocks from my heart if you can’t swim, you don’t deserve to sink in this love so I will let all the ungrateful sink you are the sediment that formed my diamond heart I cracked myself open because you could not both of us too scared to receive.

Love flows laterally both ways like the Continental Divide there should be no gulf between lovers we can flow our separate ways nourishing our own lives but water is water, the same Source.

I will no longer lap at toes begging for my beauty to be noticed if I am a storm, receive me at your door knowing that loss is sometimes necessary Re-building is healing

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The tides will always turn the Moon will always rise, calling me home, even amongst wild seas Water reveals reflects carves carries cleanses destroys purifies A dammed heart pools stagnant water and I’ll be damned if I don’t flow with the tides Take me in your hands and splash me across your face and body.

I am the storm and the calm after.

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VI. Healing feels like a treasure chest with a heavy rusted chain falling out of your womb, the place of the wound.

Dredging yourself.

It is a dream about being raped again in a beautiful sun-lit room and reporting it this time, only to be raped by a cop, too.

It’s been 5 years since you called me babe 7 years since I can’t stop seeing the voracity in your green eyes the cross necklace dangling in my face as you dredged me.

The Earth never said yes to this.

Neither did I. - Fracking

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Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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