10 Poems by Women for Women

Grab your cup of tea, or coffee, if that’s how you roll.  Spread out your lambswool throw, and enjoy these poems written just for women like you! 

1. Throw it Out 

“is love still love when it sits heavy on the skin, tacky to the touch, sun-scorched and peeling like an old porch rail?

love past the SELL BY date will make you sweat, won’t sit right in the belly.

it’s okay to throw it out, even if it’s half-full.

even if you swear it’s still good.”

— Jones Howell 

2. Be Foolish

“When you fall for a man who could never love you don’t say I didn’t warn you when you fuck your way to his heart and find broken chandeliers from every time he was hung and cut down while still shining don’t say I didn’t warn you Be foolish Be foolish Be foolish burn down the caution signs bulldoze the barriers between his past and your passion it’s the only way you’ll learn you’re not his firefighter it’s not your job to save him”

— Aman Batra

3. Don’t Let it Keep You Warm

“baby, nostalgia is only good for one thing and that’s telling stories don’t you tuck it into bed with you at night don’t you let it keep you warm”

— Fortesa Latifi 

4. Missing Words

“I think in English,

but my tongue is dressed in Spanish.

I am always missing

a word for something in either language.”

— Yesika Salgado

5. Women Like You Drown Oceans

“The kindest words my father said to me Women like you drown oceans.”

— Rupi Kaur 

6. When You Swear You Still Love Me

“I want to live in an honest house where the motion detector is so sharp it knows when my thoughts leave the room.

I want a clap on lamp that works as a polygraph; when you swear you still love me, the lights flicker.”

— Megan Falley

7. We All Are Familiar With Something Like This

“My father told me sexism is dead and told me to carry a pepper spray in the same breath.”

— Blythe Baird 

8. I Hope She Loves Herself

“The only thing touching me right now are my black jeans, a blanket, this bra. Even my friends don’t want to go out: J is in bed, phone glowing hot in his hands; Alisha’s in Florida with a sad song and a linen napkin in her lap. Maybe this cigarette is my Valentine, all mint-smoke smell in my hair; or the card my grandmother picked out carefully three days ago for me. I have to cram myself into this body every day and it’s getting crowded. I wander lonely through Target, buy small things like nail polish, a scarf, breath mints. People are always so surprised that my poems contain so much sadness, that I can crawl right into the belly of it and sleep there. I can’t talk to you like this. No one is answering their phones and the woman who tells me that the person I am trying to reach is not available is my best friend and I hope she’s happy. I hope someone loves her. I hope she loves herself.”

— Kristina Haynes 

9. You Are Not Cold 

“There is no skull and crossbones over your heart.

You are a good thing, that somebody be dying to get next to.”

— Ebony Stewart 

10. I’m an Aim 

“I’m an aim-well, shoot-sharp, sharp-tongued, sharp-thinking, fast-speaking, foot-loose, loose-tongued, let-loose, woman-on-the-loose loose woman. Beware, honey.”

— Sandra Cisneros 

• women writers