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Timeline of some of Martha Courtot\u2019s publications in Feminist periodicals: 1974-1980<\/p><\/div>\n
Sampling her poems from various periodicals, it is evident that Courtot often focuses on women\u2019s relationship with nature. Some of her poems following this pattern are \u201cthe snake woman,\u201d which was featured in Sinister Wisdom\u2019s sixth issue,\u00a0 and \u201cThe Woman Who Lives with Owls,\u201d in Sinister Wisdom\u2019s ninth issue. In these two poems, Courtot explores the idea of women finding their true identities.<\/p>\n
At the start of \u201cthe snake woman,\u201d Courtot details all the ways in which this snake woman is undesirable. \u201cShe is a snake woman \/ she has no eyelids \/ she wears the skin of dead animals\u201d (Courtot, \u201cSnake Woman,\u201d lines 1-3) and she hides from the light. But Courtot ends the poem with,<\/p>\n
this woman is bad<\/p>\n
her name begins with your initials<\/p>\n
her face is very familiar<\/p>\n
this woman moves the way your body does<\/p>\n
crawling toward morning<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
do you know this woman?<\/p>\n
do you know her?<\/p>\n
do you know? (Courtot, \u201cSnake Woman,\u201d lines 35-42)<\/p>\n
This sequence of questions pushes the reader to look below their own skin, to find their dark insides, and to truly come to terms with it no matter how disfigured it may be. In \u201cThe Woman Who Lives with Owls,\u201d Courtot equates women to nature once again, but this time to illustrate how society is deaf to the female voice.<\/p>\n
The woman who lives with the owls speaks with the birds, learning the intricacies and secrets of the owl language, a metaphor for a woman\u2019s connection to nature and the primal. However, when the woman transcribes what the owls have taught her she attempts to share her findings with the world. But, \u201cno one will look her in the eye \/ they claim she writes like everyone else \/ on white paper and sends them through the mail,\u201d\u00a0 highlighting the prominence of sexism in publishing at the time (Courtot, \u201cThe Woman Who Lives With Owls,\u201d lines 10-13). Eventually, the woman who lives with owls becomes the owl woman, secluded in nature away from the society that refused to hear her. The owl woman is happy in her new state, suggesting that the modern woman can find joy in her craft regardless of whether the society she lives in can properly appreciate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martha Courtot first featured the poem, \u201cThis is trying not to be a love poem,\u201d in a 1974 issue of Women: A Journal of Liberation. Up until the 1980\u2019s, Courtot proceeded to publish in various periodicals; including,\u00a0 Lavender Woman, Heresies, … Continue reading