{"id":37832,"date":"2017-10-29T10:17:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-29T16:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=37832"},"modified":"2018-09-19T10:18:13","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T16:18:13","slug":"i-am-tired-of-being-a-woman-trish-hopkinsons-footnote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/i-am-tired-of-being-a-woman-trish-hopkinsons-footnote\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI am tired of being a woman\u201d: Trish Hopkinson\u2019s Footnote"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Lis Pankl<\/p>\n

Trish Hopkinson\u2019s most recent volume of poetry,\u00a0Footnote<\/em>, is a deeply personal tribute to her favorite poems, prose, music, and films. She takes references from these works throughout to extrapolate into her own subject, often responding to the creator of the text or to the work itself.<\/p>\n

Within this format, Hopkinson is able to draw out themes, both from her life\/work and the life\/work of others. One theme that appears in many of her poems is commentary on the traditional roles for women: daughter, wife, mother. For example, in \u201cWaiting Around\u201d Hopkinson delves into the dilemma of motherhood\u2014of expectations to live for everyone else but oneself. The first line, \u201cIt so happens, I am tired of being a woman,\u201d gives the reader an immediate vector to follow throughout the poem\u2014the overwhelming emotion of being caged within the confines of wifedom and motherhood. The speaker desires to \u201csalvage the space in time\/for thought and collect it\/like a souvenir.\u201d This line speaks loudly to Virginia Woolf\u2019s landmark essay \u201cA Room of One\u2019s Own\u201d in which Woolf points to the luxuries of space and time as necessities in order for women to be creative beings.<\/p>\n

The theme also recalls Doris Lessing\u2019s short story \u201cTo Room Nineteen\u201d where the wife\/mother character (Susan) insists on having her own space\u2014away from the house, the children, and her husband. In the story, Susan expresses the same sort of suffocation that the speaker in Hopkinson\u2019s poem does when the poet states, \u201cI can\u2019t be this vineyard\/to be bottled, corked\/cellared, and shelved.\u201d Both works address the loss of identity that can occur when faced with caring for others as one\u2019s main activity and purpose for living.<\/p>\n

The last lines of the poem,<\/p>\n

I wait. I hold still in my form-fitting camouflage.<\/em><\/p>\n

I put on my strong suit and war paint lipstick<\/em><\/p>\n

and I gamble on what\u2019s expected.<\/em><\/p>\n

And what to become. And how<\/em><\/p>\n

to behave: mother, wife, brave<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

suggest that this speaker\u2019s solution to her dilemma is passive rather than active or destructive while in \u201cTo Room Nineteen\u201d there is a destructive solution, suicide.<\/p>\n

A final resonance of this chapbook is in Kate Chopin\u2019s\u00a0The Awakening<\/em>, yet another work of fiction that explores the binding confines of traditional female roles. In \u201cWaiting Around\u201d Hopkinson adds to the body of work that offers a critical perspective on the lives of women and does so with poignant imagery that captures the details of domesticity:<\/p>\n

The streaks<\/em><\/p>\n

of summer have gone,<\/em><\/p>\n

drained between gaps and gutters,<\/em><\/p>\n

and the ink-smell of report cards and recipe boxes<\/em><\/p>\n

cringes me into corners.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is this exploration of suffocating domesticity that links Hopkinson with many of the great female fiction writers of the 20th century. And while\u00a0Footnote\u00a0<\/em>illuminates other themes, it is the relentless questioning of a woman\u2019s place that I found most arresting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WAITING AROUND
\n<\/strong>by Trish Hopkinson<\/em><\/h4>\n

It so happens, I am tired of being a woman.<\/h4>\n

And it happens while I wait for my children to grow<\/h4>\n

into the burning licks of adulthood. The streaks<\/h4>\n

of summer sun have gone,<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

drained between gaps into gutters,<\/h4>\n

and the ink-smell of report cards and recipe boxes<\/h4>\n

cringes me into corners. Still I would be satisfied<\/h4>\n

if I could draw from language<\/h4>\n

the banquet of poets.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

If I could salvage the space in time<\/h4>\n

for thought and collect it<\/h4>\n

like a souvenir. I can no longer<\/h4>\n

be timid and quiet, breathless<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

and withdrawn.<\/h4>\n

I can\u2019t salve the silence.<\/h4>\n

I can\u2019t be this vineyard<\/h4>\n

to be bottled, corked,<\/h4>\n

cellared, and shelved.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s why the year-end gapes with pointed teeth,<\/h4>\n

growls at my crow\u2019s feet, and gravels into my throat.<\/h4>\n

It claws its way thought the edges of an age<\/h4>\n

I never planned to reach<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

And diffuses my life into dullness\u2014<\/h4>\n

workout rooms and nail salons,<\/h4>\n

bleach-white sheets on clotheslines,<\/h4>\n

and treacherous photographs of younger me<\/h4>\n

at barbecues and birthday parties.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

I wait. I hold still in my form-fitting camouflage.<\/h4>\n

I put on my strong suit and war paint lipstick<\/h4>\n

and I gamble on what\u2019s expected.<\/h4>\n

And what to become. And how<\/h4>\n

to behave: mother, wife, brave.<\/h4>\n

#<\/p>\n

Footnote
\nby Trish Hopkinson
\nLithic Press<\/a>, 2017
\n$12.00<\/p>\n

\"\"A Pushcart-nominated poet, Trish Hopkinson has been published in several anthologies and journals, including\u00a0Stirring<\/em>,\u00a0Pretty Owl Poetry<\/em>, and\u00a0Chagrin River Review.<\/em>Footnote<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0her third chapbook. She is a product director by profession and resides in Utah with her handsome husband and their two outstanding children. You can follow Hopkinson on her blog where she shares information on how to write, publish, and participate in the greater poetry community\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Lis Pankl Trish Hopkinson\u2019s most recent volume of poetry,\u00a0Footnote, is a deeply personal tribute to her favorite poems, prose, music, and films. She takes references from these works throughout to extrapolate into her own subject, often responding to the creator of the text or to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2589,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews-literary-arts","category-literary-arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Footnote.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 08:21:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37834,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37832\/revisions\/37834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}