March 31, 2021

NaPoWriMo 2021 – Early Bird Challenge – headless women

By Kat Myrman 
The NaPoWriMo 2021 Early Bird Challenge: Today, we’d like to challenge you to spend a few minutes looking for a piece of art that interests you in the online galleries of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. After you’ve selected your piece, study the photographs and the accompanying text. And then – write a poem!
Marble female figure 4500 – 4000 B.C. – On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 150
The figure represents a rare type known as steatopygous, characterized by particularly full legs and buttocks, and is undoubtedly indicative of fertility.
headless women

how fitting that she has no head
body, voluptuous
her legs and booty amply spread 
her brain superfluous
prized for her shape, this nameless nude
a fertile femme, as seen by dudes
prized for her shape
prized for her shape
objectified, imagined lewd

centuries passed, now civilized
fair ladies fully dressed
enhanced their breasts and rears to size
by wearing buttresses
they’ve bought the lie, dominated
by their men, their worth negated
they’ve bought the lie
they’ve bought the lie  
the patriarchs are quite elated

and here we are in modern times
sexualized, sad to say
with silicone pumped plump behinds
bootylicious boo-tays
not much has changed, here men still reign
liberated only in name
not much has changed 
not much has changed
for babes and chicks and ‘ho’s and dames

~kat

The Poetry Form: The Trijan Refrain, created by Jan Turner, consists of three 9-line stanzas, for a total of 27 lines. Line 1 is the same in all three stanzas, although a variation of the form is not to repeat the same line at the beginning of each stanza. In other words, the beginning line of each stanza can be different. The first four syllables of line 5 in each stanza are repeated as the double-refrain for lines 7 and 8. The Trijan Refrain is a rhyming poem with a set meter and rhyme scheme as follows:

Rhyme scheme: a/b/a/b/c/c/d,d refrain of first 4 words of line five /c

Meter: 8/6/8/6/8/8/4,4 refrain/8

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