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    On My Period
    On My Period
    On My Period
    Ebook267 pages1 hour

    On My Period

    By Elena Petrovska

    5/5

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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)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAdelaide Books Publishers
    Release dateAug 10, 2019
    ISBN9781951214166
    On My Period
    Author

    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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    • 5/5
      Very 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

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