Loving the Ladies: the poems of Pat Parker

Posted: June 29, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: English, Pat Parker | Tags: | Comments Off on Loving the Ladies: the poems of Pat Parker

ZP_Pat Parker in 1989_photograph © Robert GiardZP_Pat Parker in 1989_photograph © Robert Giard

Pat Parker

“Sunshine”

.

If it were possible

to place you in my brain

to let you roam around

in and out

my thought waves

you would never

have to ask

why do you love me?

.

This morning as you slept

I wanted to kiss you awake

say I love you till your brain

smiled and nodded yes

this woman does love me.

.

Each day the list grows

filled with the things that are you

things that make my heart jump

yet words would sound strange

become corny in utterance.

.

In the morning when I wake

I don’t look out my window

to see if the sun is shining.

I turn to you instead.

.     .     .

“I have”

.

i have known

many women

and the you of you

puzzles me.

.

it is not beauty

i have known

beautiful women.

.

it is not brains

i have known

intelligent women.

.

it is not goodness

i have known

good women.

.

it is not selflessness

i have known

giving women.

.

yet you touch me

in new

different

ways.

.

i become sand

on a beach

washed anew with

each wave of you.

.

with each touch of you

i am fresh bread

warm and rising.

.

i become a newborn kitten

ready to be licked

and nuzzled into life.

.

you are my last love

and my first love

you make me a virgin

and I want to give myself to you.

.     .     .

“Sublimation”

.

It has been said that

sleep is a short death.

I watch you, still,

your breath moving –

soft summer breeze.

Your face is velvet

the tension of our love,

gone.

No, false death is not here

in our bed

just you – asleep

and me – wanting

to make love to you,

writing words instead.

.     .     .

“Metamorphosis”

.

you take these fingers

bid them soft

a velvet touch

to your loins

.

you take these arms

bid them pliant

a warm cocoon

to shield you

.

you take this shell

bid it full

a sensual cup

to lay with you

.

you take this voice

bid it sing

an uncaged bird

to warble your praise

.

you take me, love,

a sea skeleton

fill me with you

and I become

pregnant with love

give birth

to revolution.

.     .     .

“For Willyce”

 

.

 

When i make love to you

 

i try

 

with each stroke of my tongue

 

to say

 

i love you

 

to tease

 

i love you

 

to hammer

 

i love you

 

to melt

 

i love you

 

and your sounds drift down

 

oh god!

 

oh jesus!

 

and i think

 

here it is, some dude’s

 

getting credit for what

 

a woman

 

has done

 

again.

 

.     .     .

Pat Parker (1944-1989) was a Black-American lesbian and feminist.  She was born in Houston, Texas, and lived and worked (at a women’s health centre) in Oakland, California, from 1978 almost up until her death from breast cancer. Racism, misogyny, homophobia – Parker “kept it real” about such facts at numerous poetry readings throughout the 1970s.  She had had two marriages – and raised two children from them – but when her second marriage ended in divorce she journeyed down a different road, stating: “After my first relationship with a woman, I knew where I as going.”  Known for her “hard truths” in poems such as “Exodus”, “Brother”, “Questions” and “Womanslaughter”, Parker also had a whole other lesser-known side to her as a poet who made love poems – several of which we present here.  Some are tender and euphoric and one – “For Willyce” – has Parker’s characteristic ‘edge’.

.     .     .     .     .