ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Natalie Solmer was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, a granddaughter of Polish and Silesian immigrants. She worked in the field of horticulture for many years, including 13 years as a grocery store florist, before becoming a professor of English and creative writing. In addition, she is the founder and editor in chief of The Indianapolis Review. Her work has been published in journals such as North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Pleiades, Mom Egg Review, and Tab Poetry Journal. Her debut book of poems, Water Castle, was published in the fall of 2024. You can find her poems, visual poetry, and visual art at her website.
Previously in Glass: A Journal of Poetry:
Place the Lightning Bolt in Your Hair
Floral Lady: Winter
Visceral
I could crush you
with my meno belly.
In its power, I believe.
Lying on the couch
thinking like H.D. — if I could get up
I could break a tree.
A coked up reality star on TV
calls his wife a tree trunk
after the baby.
I'm an apple, I’m a tree.
I don't want a GLP.
I've survived the waif & then body positivity
disappeared just for me
& my GenX ladies
to see nothing on our screens but shots
& sucking the fat out of mommy
makeovers because our middle
cells have gone visceral — that fat
rages, hormone-gone, in
witching nightsweat hours.
I don't care.
I love carbs
& always hated catcalls.
Anyway, I birthed the world.
As a Gen-Xer, I was happy to see the Body Positivity Movement take off, only to see it die a swift death with advent of GLP-1s. The standards of beauty for women in our culture are becoming more ridiculous by the day, as evidenced by certain political figures, as well as celebrities and reality TV stars. (As problematic as it is, I confess I am a super fan of Bravo TV--any other Bravo poets out there, please reach out!) That being said, seeing the way women are objectified and treated, as well as held to impossible standards, is enough to incite rage, amplified by the natural changes of middle age. I was also inspired by the double meaning inherent in so-called "visceral fat."
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
