these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don’t fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don’t like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!
*another poem from Lucille Clifton, who was a writer, poet laureate of MD, academic, and activist as well as being an upstater like me, although Clifton was a western NY upstater (she was born outside of Buffalo), which is a whole other ecosphere of its own!
Whenever I have taken a yoga class, and we’re asked to place our feet ‘hips width apart’ for a particular pose, I have long noticed that most if not all of the women attending put their feet a yard apart, or more, completely overestimating their own dimensions. This has pained me, for it is taught to us – that we are too big, that our asses are YUGE, that our actually perfectly normal and diverse sizes are ‘not right’, like the beds and chairs and bowls of porridge from that nursery story told us all so long ago.
Women’s hips bring forth life, move every single one of us forward, and yes, excite the imaginations and hormones of men and other women, have done for – well – forever. A place of power and creative generation, to be celebrated, always! These hips don’t lie, bay-bee, and they’re magical!!