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WHAT ARE BIG GIRLS MADE OF
WHAT ARE BIG GIRLS MADE OF?
WHAT ARE BIG GIRLS MADE OF is one of three books
of poetry named by the American Library Association as Notable
Books of 1997, In their citation of the award, they say "Piercy
provides a portfolio of poignantly evoked poems in this collection
of her memories, thoughts and interactions with life and love."
WHAT ARE BIG GIRLS MADE OF?
collects mostly poems of the last four years. It starts with
the Brotherless sequence, poems about Marge's charming and much
older brother, close to her in childhood but almost a stranger
in later life – but never quite. The title poem and several
of the others are about women's bodies – who controls
them, why we treat our selves as "a science project/ a
garden to be weeded/ a dog to be trained…."
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Two of the poems are about choice, "For two women shot to death
in Brookline, Massachusetts" and "A day in the life".
"Salt in the afternoon" is a section of poems on love, sex
and friendship. "A precarious balance" holds nature poems,
most about Cape Cod, where Piercy lives. "My boa" is made
up poems about personal identify, a beautiful kaddish, a couple of poems
for Passover and for the High Holidays, some poems about relatives.
There are poems about butterflies and poems about sexual harassment
and poems accepting your belly and witnessing the death of a doe. The
collection ends with "The art of blessing the day,"
Attention is love, what we must give
children, mothers, fathers, pets,
our friends, the news, the woes of others.
What we want to change we curse and then
pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can
with eyes and hands and tongue. If you
can't bless it, get ready to make it new.
--Marge Piercy
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