On My Period
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About this ebook
Honing in on an artistic experiment, Elena Petrovska wrote every poem in this collection while on her period over the course of about the same time it takes to pop out a baby. With each poem, she swiftly touches on what it means for her to be a woman - especially one on her period. Elena has flipped the switch and allowed herself a pleasurable experience of writing poetry during a stereotypically painful and not-so-pleasurable time-of-the-month. She embraces the roller coaster of emotions and physical sensations. Out of pain, art is born. While receiving confirmation over the course of nine months that she is not pregnant, Elena Petrovska pushes out life and gives birth with her words.
"In a stunning feminist reversal of Dante's famous "words and blood" verses, Elena Petrovska gives voice to women menstruation through her own menstruation, and vice versa, disclosing for us one of the most tabooed of women experiences, one hidden under centuries of ignorance and sealed under the incredibly vague name of "periods": word after word, drop after drop, we enter her world and we do not want to leave it." (Chiara Bottici, The New School, Philosopher and Writer)
"A period is a slice of time and a sentence’s full stop. On My Period balances on both as we must do, dancing in and through our duration, out and through our fleshy confines. Through these poems, Petrovska’s dance is done, as all dances should be done, with the elegance of precarity and the improbability of hope." (Vanessa Place, Criminal Appellate Attorney / Writer)
"The hysteric was historically said to be a woman whose uterus, like an animal, was set loose in her body, driving her mad. It had to be forced back into its rightful place. Elena Petrovska’s poems do precisely the opposite—refusing any proper place, or terms, or traits of femininity, by embodying an intimate everyday language from the place that is a woman, period." (Jamieson Webster, Psychoanalyst / Writer)
Elena Petrovska
Elena Petrovska was born in Macedonia and raised in New York. She is currently attending The New School for Social Research's Psychology graduate program in New York City. Apart from reading and writing, Elena enjoys spending time in nature, especially with her loved ones.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very well written! I could read it multiple times and still never get bored of it. Deserves more hype!!!!!
Book preview
On My Period - Elena Petrovska
ON MY PERIOD
ON MY PERIOD
Poems
by
ELENA PETROVSKA
Adelaide Books
New York/Lisbon
2019
ON MY PERIOD
Poems
By Elena Petrovska
Copyright © by Elena Petrovska
Cover design © 2019 Erin Lee Carman
Published by Adelaide Books, New York / Lisbon
adelaidebooks.org
Editor-in-Chief
Stevan V. Nikolic
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in
the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For any information, please address Adelaide Books
at info@adelaidebooks.org
or write to:
Adelaide Books
244 Fifth Ave. Suite D27
New York, NY, 10001
ISBN-10: 1-951214-16-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-951214-16-6
To all those who've inspired me, supported me, and loved me- even while on my period.
To all the periods in the world; no book would be complete without one.
1)
I decided to write a collection of poems,
While on my period.
All these poems were written by me
While on my period.
So there are no chapters
Or an organized fashion
Of writing these.
They’re pure
And raw
And messy
And this is how they happened
To flow out of me-
Literally.
I hope they're not nasty
Or gross
Or too emotional for you.
I often find
That I'm most sincere when on my period.
The most honest.
There's more spilling out from me than just blood.
Well,
Even my words are bloody
Because they symbolize pain
And suffering.
I just wanted to let
My creative juices flow,
In one way or another.
All I am
Is a woman
Who didn't have a baby this month.
And yet, I'm losing bits and pieces of myself.
Not just this week,
But all month.
I'm losing myself when people don't hear me,
When they disrespect me,
When they don't understand me
Or feel me.
So, if you don't like it,
Blame it on the blood I shed.
You’ve caught me red handed-
Blame it on my period, again.
2)
Boys who don’t get a girl
Find a way to make the whole world swirl.
They blow up schools and malls
Just because they didn’t get their pretty little dolls.
They kill and they murder
Because she wouldn’t let them get any further.
They think the world owes them a life or two
Because they got emasculated by a few.
These boys-
These boys have a lot to learn.
They end up shooting bullets
Because they’re not shooting sperm.
3)
Our girls,
Our girls are slipping away.
From frilly socks to high income pay.
Nails always polished and heels sky high
Our girls- they are no longer naïve and shy.
Our girls-
They are assertive and confident and stand up to be heard.
No gesture or action or statement is too absurd.
Everything we’ve taught them, is all put to use,
Yet not quite the way we planned it, so we’re left feeling confused.
Our girls-
They have found partners
Of every size, shape, and color.
They range from blue collar workers to philosophy scholars.
Not quite who we hoped for,
So we put up a fight-
But our girls, our girls- they’re alright.
For the first time,
In 20 something years,
Our girls will bring us to those big dreaded tears.
The ones so salty they can dry up the sea,
The ones so big they can cause a tsunami.
Our girls.
They’ve chosen their own life path and while we are an emotional mess,
We’ve raised our girls to be a success.
We’ve raised them to have open hearts,
We’ve raised them to be amazing grown-ups.
We’ve raised them to shut down the nay-sayers,
We’ve raised them to be fair players.
Our girls
Look at their parents now-
We’ve become who we taught them never to turn in to-
Judgmental, shunning, and closed minded,
Everything our daughters don’t need right now,
Well, they’ve found it.
The roles change now and they teach us
How to be more accepting of the world around us.
Our girls
They’re not slipping away.
They’re blossoming from the house we’ve given them to stay.
They’re fearless, intelligent, and humorous too.
Their hunger for life inspires you.
Like queens on top of the highest of thrones,
They make the most of life as if they’ve got nothing but
Glitter in their bones.
4)
When I have my
Period
In March,
Will it be considered
A
Women’s
March?
5)
I often look
At my blood
Peacefully,
Like a Rorschach blotch
Or the bottom of a finished cup of Turkish coffee,
And try to make out
What it is that my body is trying to tell me.
What ideas died inside of me
Because of tradition?
Or oppression?
Or patriarchy?
What ideas could've been breathed life in to
Had I only come in a different body?
6)
I will
Make you
Feel things
With my words.
And I will
Never
Have to touch you,
Rest assured.
But I will
Make you
Feel things
You've never felt