Stitched on Me
(By Hilary King)
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| Author | Hilary King |
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Through keen observations and meditations on daily life, this fierce, bold collection of feminist poems interrogates the familial and societal expectations of women in the Anthropocene. From the mall to Anne Sexton’s typewriter, from the movie Top Gun to the “battlefield” of one’s body, Hilary King invites readers to consider the wars women fight with ourselves and with those who so often seek to diminish us. What happens when instead of pretty things, we “want an empire,” when we “dream of conquering / dream of surrendering?” If you are a woman in America, if you have been unsatisfied with the “pretense of silk,” this book will challenge and sustain you. It is a necessary, truth-telling commentary on the conflicts and contradictions that thread themselves through our complex identities and our lives.
~ Joan Kwon Glass, author of Night Swim
In Stitched on Me, poet Hilary King takes a fearless look at womanhood, beauty, and aging, “a lesson few teachers master/and no student remembers.” Older women these days, she notes, are too busy “sharpening themselves/into spears aimed at age.” Sometimes emotionally raw, always emotionally real, these generous, imaginative poems pack hard-earned truths and expose the cultural baggage women carry from girlhood. “I’ve let sorrow fill the sky between my ribs,” the speaker confides. Here the family dog, a leather jacket, even Anne Sexton’s typewriter weigh in on the dilemma. Crafted with precision and tempered by King’s wit and humor, Stitched on Me discovers a different vision of aging and offers self-acceptance, the greatest wisdom of all. What a gift to read this book.
~ Sally Ashton, author Listening to Mars and The Behaviour of Clocks
Step into these poems like you’d step into the closet of a formidable woman, a mix of discovery and caution in your gaze. She’s a stylish woman of a certain age, “skirmishes / in the lines” around her eyes, her dreams “a small red X in enemy territory.” So yes, here are wide-legged pants, abandoned high heels, a leather jacket that smells of trauma and cigarettes—but here too are an imaginary therapist, “the long hall / of self-esteem,” a fist clenched against all the female roles perpetuated by our culture and even our own mothers. Like the backstitch known for its strength, this collection traverses, from girlhood to crone, topics that remain maddeningly relevant today: beauty and body image, the cost of fast fashion and instant gratification, female ambition and the inevitable disappointments of aging, and more. No matter your generation or gender identity, you’ll find a woman you recognize in these pages—and it just may be yourself. These needle-sharp poems not only pierce the narratives of womanhood, they draw blood.
~ Kory Wells, author of Sugar Fix”
