Her Kind
By Anne Sexton
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.
I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.
HER KIND, a literary community powered by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, was launched in May 2012.
Founded in 2009, VIDA is a national literary organization seeking “to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women through meaningful conversation and the exchange of ideas among existing and emerging literary communities.”
To explain our mission a little further, VIDA provides a space for female writers of literature to engage in conversations regarding the critical reception of women’s creative writing in our current culture. We also hope to spur writers on with their creative work, providing a larger sense of community for women and those who care about women’s voices in literature. Most of all, VIDA is inclusive: the writers involved represent practically every identity and aesthetic out there. So much of the pleasure of being involved with VIDA has been engaging with people in parts of the literary world we didn’t know well before.
HER KIND is VIDA’s next big step. It serves as a forum to create lively conversation about issues that are often dismissed or overlooked by the mainstream media. We wish to honor the experiences of women writers and hope HER KIND will be an agent for positive social change, encouraging women to define their own terms regarding the importance and value of women’s voices. Funny, thorny, contemplative, savvy—HER KIND provides a myriad of voices and aesthetic approaches for readers.
In short, we at VIDA know women writers are smart. And we’ve had to be more than capable to make writing central in our busy lives. Just imagine the positive influence we’re bound to create when we come together as a community.
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