Excerpts

It takes so long to learn to be a woman — Ursula K. Le Guin

I am turning into the Chekhov play where the women stand at the window of their provincial outpost and pine for Moscow — Laurie Stone

I sin so much harder now / knowing what I know — Elisabeth Murawski

. . . it appears to me that the movement toward consciousness is the great challenge of our lives . . . — Gladys Swan

. . . most of us, women at least, have lain / this way, with the heels of our feet in the metal / cups — stirrups, not quite accurate, implying / we’re the riders, when we’re not . . . — Laura McCullough

You were supposed to know the answers by the time you were thirty — Valerie Miner

Isn’t it the definition of a diary to be both that empty vessel seeking fulfillment and that handheld mirror reflecting a version of what already is? — Alexandra Marshall

I’ve seen fewer wrinkles on raisins — Leigh Anne Jasheway

Either this new jacket is surprisingly warm / or I’m having a heart attack — Dorianne Laux

. . . I’ve been praying since I first got the call telling me my mother needed to be admitted to hospital. Let me, oh Lord, forget everything but compassion — Lauren B. Davis

I have seen the enemy and she is me. Only she’s not an enemy and I couldn’t have seen her without my contacts plus the huge magnifying glass I keep by the phone book — Molly Giles

So come on, gorgeous, get yourself over / to the shore with the sleeping gulls / — does the tide rise or doesn’t it — Alicia Ostriker

Might Appreciation for the Moment be the alchemic formula . . . — Ellen Visson

. . . three-dot ellipses remind us of mortality, by marking the vast spaces to either side of the several distinct movements that make up our lives — Abby Frucht