Peter reminded me of this interesting Letter to the Editor to Poetry last year.

Dear Editor,

An essential constituent of readers absent from the necessary and vital conversation about “women’s poetry” is gay men, who have a greater affinity for poetry by women than many—including Meghan O’Rourke, J. Allyn Rosser and Eleanor Wilner—may realize. Rosser states that from a marketing perspective, “men are not very likely to clamor for books that focus on women’s experience.” When I first came to contemporary poetry in the early eighties, poetry by women was exactly what I clamored for. The first book of poetry I bought that was not assigned for a college course was Adrienne Rich’s Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974. I became a rabid reader of Forché, Glück, Lorde, and Graham. I tried to join a women’s poetry group but was denied entry due to my gender. But the first time I entered Sharon Olds’s hot pink office as her student at NYU, I felt vindicated. She (and a women poets course) introduced me to Alicia Ostriker—a fountainhead of knowledge, form, and humanity (thankfully present in the exchange)—and Muriel Rukeyser, perhaps the most committed poet and writer of the twentieth century.

Richard Tayson
Briarwood, New York

I met Richard last year in the Pink Ink Conference in NYC. Nice guy! Wonderful poet and reader.


I found the via the Poetry site, where they actually have their letters archived. Awesome resource. Check out more letters in response to their 'panel' on "Women's Poetry."

Also of interest, I found on their site this commentary on "Does Poetry Have a Social Function?"