Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology by Elly Bulkin

Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology Reviews

• 
  Stephanie

  The poems in themselves were brillant. My only scrutiny is really of the editors' decision to categorize them all as "lesbian," though they do acknowledge the difficulties in doing so in their introduction. I do think we can think of the "lesbianism" here as by Riche's idea of the lesbian spectrum, it being a love or celebration of women even if not always explicitly sexual. While that too makes sense to me and I can see how rigid definitions & categorizations are in themselves in opposition to feminist ideals, I do feel uncomfortable "watering down" lesbianism to the point that anyone can be a lesbian-- it leaves ample room for appropriation. Anyhow, again these are only questions raised by the editors decisions, not the poems in themselves.
• 
  Elisa

  I think this is an important book and is filled with quality poetry. And I understand that it was compiled at a time when lesbians and other minorities were brutally suppressed, so there is a lot of dark poetry about oppression and pain here. However, there should also be JOY in lesbian poetry! There should be LIGHT in lesbian poetry. There should be HOPE in lesbian poetry. And there should be more happy LOVE. In some ways this volume is a call to lesbian writers everywhere to rise up and CELEBRATE the lesbian experience. I'm going to answer that call and I hope many others will join me.
• 
  Sonia Allison

  love every word in this holy beautiful book.