Eloise Klein Healy

Eloise Klein Healy is the author of six books of poetry: Building Some Changes (Beyond
Baroque Foundation); A Packet Beating Like a Heart (Books Of A Feather Press);
Ordinary Wisdom (Paradise Press/re-released by Red Hen Press); Artemis In Echo Park (Firebrand Books), nominated for the Lambda Book Award and released as a spoken word recording by New Alliance Records; and her collections from Red Hen Press, Passing and most recently, The Islands Project: Poems for Sappho. The Inevitable Press published her chapbook Women’s Studies Chronicles in the Laguna Poets Series. She directed the Women’s Studies Program at California State University Northridge and taught in the Feminist Studio Workshop at The Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. The Founding Chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles where she is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emerita. Healy is also the co-founder of ECO-ARTS, an ecotourism/arts venture and Guest Poet at the Idyllwild Summer Poetry Festival. Her imprint with Red Hen Press, Arktoi Books, established in 2006, specializes in publishing the work of lesbian authors.

Included below is one selected work by the visiting writer.

 

The Sapphists

 

So what if they all throw

like girls?

They catch

like girls do, too.

Taking in, whole-body pressing.

Catch in the throat

just thinking about it,

something inside me

saying, "Safe, safe at home."

So what if they run

like girls?

They're never caught

like girl, picked off

or stuck in a run-down.

No, they keep their eyes

on the ball,

and when you're not looking,

a little spit on their fingers.

(First published in The Islands Project by Red Hen Press in 2007).