Stepping Stones

 

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They are almost all gone now, the books that
were my stepping stones into feminist  
thought and practice.  In my last downsizing
I let go of books I’ve internalized.
I cannot quote chapter and verse,
but books were the openings I needed,
row by row, from The Feminist Mystique and
Sister Outsider through surprising novels
way back when I was tiptoeing into feminism.
 
Books introduced me to pioneers who
made it clear that the personal is political,
that breaking isolation can be the first
step to empowerment, that there
is no universal capital W women,
but instead a complexity of race
and class and gender. Books carried me
into lands my upbringing didn’t prepare
me for, but with which my heart resonated. 
 
I’m still on those stepping stones, though
books now are more often than not
paperless eBooks and on-line poetry.  
Stepping is still the image even as I slow
down.  Openings still occur, and no closing
is in sight.  When I tire of reading, learning,
and experiencing, I will be ready for hospice,
but by then, my own books or poems may be
stepping stones and openings for others.

For Mary's prompt "Openings and Closings" at What's Going On? 

The Feminist Mystique by Betty Friedan, 1963

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, 1984

Surprising stories and novels like The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman (1892) and The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899).

 

My blog poems are rough drafts.

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© 2026 Susan L. Chast