Last week I posted a fairy tale poem entitled Immortality at Wild Rose Reader for Poetry Friday. I'm intrigued by the way some poets use themes from traditional literature in their contemporary poetry. The following poem uses a familiar fairy tale to look at a female stereotype.
Gretel
by Andrea Hollander Budy
A woman is born to this:
sift, measure, mix, roll thin.
She learns the dough until
it folds into her skin and there is
no difference. Much later
she tries to lose it. Makes bets
with herself and wins enough
to keep trying. One day she begins
that long walk in unfamiliar woods.
You can read the rest of the poem here at Poetry 180.
At Wild Rose Reader today, I have two poems dedicated to my young friend Daisy Locke. Daisy is a cancer survivor. My husband will be riding in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge for Team Daisy this weekend. Last year Team Daisy raised $65,000 for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
3 comments:
Wow. Thanks for this poem. This is another one for my fairy tale collection.
Alkelda,
I'm always on the lookout for fairy tale poems. Here are titles of two collections of fairy tale poems: TRAIL OF STONES by Gwen Strauss and IF THE SHOE FITS: VOICES FROM CINDERELLA by Laura Whipple.
Elaine: I love Trail of Stones (and should actually find my own copy one of these days). I'll look for If the Shoe Fits.
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