Carolyn Kizer (1925–2014) was born in Spokane, Washington, and received the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Yin. Her numerous poetry collections reflect feminist and human rights causes and have received many honors. The founding editor of Poetry Northwest, Kizer served as director of literature at the National Endowment for the Arts and was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

From The Erotic Philosophers

by Carolyn Kizer

It’s a spring morning; sun pours in the window
As I sit here drinking coffee, reading Augustine.
And finding him, as always, newly minted
From when I first encountered him in school.
Today I’m overcome with astonishment
At the way we girls denied all that was mean
In those revered philosophers we studied;
Who found us loathsome, loathsomely seductive;
Irrelevant, at best, to noble discourse
Among the sex, the only sex that counted.
Wounded, we pretended not to mind it
And wore tight sweaters to tease our shy professor.

People on couch
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