I've been researching the history of lesbian literature (as you do), and one of the things that I've learned is that lesbian poetry has been at the foundation of lesbian lit. Of course, Sappho is the one that started it all, though we have to make due with only fragments of her poetry, leaving us with tantalizing scraps of poems like:
and neither any[ ]nor anyholy place nor
was there from which we were absent
One of the few (almost) complete poems we have still resonates today:
and lovely laughing-oh it puts the heart in my chest on wingsfor when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me But all is to be dared, because even a person of poverty . . .
(Both translated by Anne Carson in If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho)
Sappho is the foundation of queer women literature, including giving us the words lesbian and sapphic, but lesbian poetry books have in general been some of the first explicitly lesbian books published through time.
In the 1800s, Wu Tsao was a celebrated poet. Her poems were sung throughout China. And she was open about loving women. Among other topics, she wrote love poetry for courtesans, including this one:
For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin(Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung in Women Poets of China)
In 1900 in France, Natalie Clifford Barney published Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes (Translated: Some Portrait-Sonnets of Women), a book of lesbian love poetry. When her father found out about this, he bought up the remaining stock of the title and had them burned.
A few years later, Renée Vivien (a lover of Barney's) wrote and published her own lesbian poetry, chock-full of references to Sappho's poems and not exactly subtextual in their content:
The Touch(The Muse of the Violets: Poems by Renée Vivien)
In 1923, the U.S. got its first book of lesbian poetry: On A Grey Thread by Elsa Gidlow. I'm including one from her later collection, Sapphic Songs:
For the Goddess Too Well KnownI can't detail the entire history of lesbian poetry here, so I will skip to one of the biggest names: Audre Lorde, who has written incredible things about race, sexuality, and sexism, and casually includes lines like "And there is, for me, no difference between writing a good poem and moving into sunlight against the body of a woman I love" (Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power).
Love Poem(The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde)
A contemporary of Lorde's who isn't as well known is Pat Parker, who was another black lesbian feminist poet writing in the '70s. I can't help but include this one :
[image description: a Pat Parker poem titled "For Willyce." It reads: "When i make love to you / i try / with each stroke of my tongue/ to say i love you / to tease i love you / to hammer i love you / to melt i love you // & your sounds drift down / oh god! / oh jesus! / and I think - / here it is, some dude's / getting credit for what / a woman / has done, / again."]
Of course, lesbian poetry isn't just a thing of the past. Recently, Julie R. Enszer's collection Sisterhood left me completely shaken with this poem:
Zyklon BWhere should one draw the line?
...the line is very clearly Zyklon B.
The painters call before we move into the new house. Ma'am, they say-
I am not old enough to be a ma'am, but I don't correct them-
Ma'am, they say, we smell gas.
I dismiss their concern. I say, Keep painting.
I say, You are already two weeks behind schedule.
This is what I know of life:
Love fiercely, even recklessly;
Laugh loudly, even raucously;
Risk everything, at least once;
Live openly, without abandon;
Build trust, be honest;
Buy American.
A year later our washing machine breaks.
I want a new German one-small, sleek, stylish.
I tell my wife, It is perfect for the kitchen.
Our washer and dryer are in the kitchen.
My wife says, They built the ovens.
We buy a new Frigidaire.
If you're looking for coming out poetry, the tiny book When I Was Straight by Julie Marie Wade would be up your alley. It is divided into two sections: "When I Was Straight" and "After."
When I Was Straight slender pillow. porch-light moon. terrifying dark.This, of course, does not begin to scratch the surface in highlighting amazing lesbian poetry! Feel free to comment with of your favorites that I missed.
Some great resources for discovering more authors are: this list of LBT+ Women & Non-Binary Contemporary Poets (and if you are looking for other queer women poets, I can't recommend Leah Lakshmi-Piepzna Samarasinha highly enough!), looking at the Lambda Literary Awards winner (and nominees) for the Lesbian Poetry category, and the Goodreads list of Best Lesbian Poetry.
Probably the easiest way, though, is to try some lesbian poetry/literature anthologies, like Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature by Emma Donoghue, Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present by Lillian Faderman, or My Lover Is a Woman: Contemporary Lesbian Love Poems edited by Lesléa Newman, and follow up on the poets who appeal to you!
Looking for more sapphic poetry? Check out 10 Poetry Collections by Black Queer Women and the Poetry tag.
This post originally ran on Book Riot.
