“#MeToo: a women’s poetry anthology, rallying against sexual assault and harassment.”
First came the scream, then the voice and now the words; brave, strong and often shocking words.
“the cramp of being a woman” from Stella Wulf’s After Eden, is an extraordinary phrase…if I had to take one line from this book to show the difference between the lived experience of men and women, I would take this one. All the more so as Wulf talks about it as something “learned”.
While the altered everyday-ness of the landmarks change when you walk home by Emma Lee, is truly sinister.
Katrina Naomi’s The Bicycle fractures and breaks down as the syntax fractures and breaks down and the voice is almost lost again.
I know several of the poets gathered in this collection and that these experiences have been part of the life of these friends, saddens me and deepens my respect for them.
Mary Beard talks about “the voice” in classical literature, its importance, how it denoted a position in society and bestowed an authority: conversely she notes the parallel importance of the denial of a voice, how it disempowers and eventually dehumanises. This voice now found should be listened to and must be heard.
The final few lines of Now, When I Think About Women by Emily Sernaker read:
The article
said there was evidence of a struggle:
that before she died she bit her attacker
so hard her teeth cracked.
The proceeds from the book go to Women’s Aid; buy it.
365 times 50 
I’m immensely proud but humbled to be sharing a platform with so many courageous women, and amazed to get a mention in this review of such an awe-inspiring book. Thank you for your review of #MeToo anthology.
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