Someone said to me that, talked about poetry,
and I tried to make very clear that I
believe poetry can be fun, but that
doesn't mean I'm not serious.
I am very serious.
Anyway, this is another poem like that.
It's called "What the Mirror Said."
Now, I like to think of this as my truth gauge poem.
And the reason is that I've read it at a lot of places
and I often preface it by saying, how many people here
have not been satisfied when they got up in the morning,
and looked in their mirror, and they were not
thrilled with what they saw?
And generally, women will all say, yes.
And the men say, never.
And I think that has something to do with relative honesty
of women and men.
What?
I don't know.
What?
I don't know.
Could be.
It was also written.
So it was written on a day like that.
It was also written.
At a time, my husband used to teach at Harvard.
I was so impressed.
I just thought that was the one most wonderful thing.
And I used to go visit him because he'd commute.
And I was standing in Harvard Square one day,
and I looked around.
Now, most of you may not have gotten to this place.
I looked around, all the females, but me, were 18.
And everybody I saw was a girl.
And I was and am definitely a woman.
And so I want to think about that.
This is that kind of poem.
I looked in the mirror.
I thought, oh, my god.
And this is what the mirror said back
to me to get me through a day.
It's called "What the Mirror Said."
Listen, you a wonder, you a city of a woman,
you got a geography of your own.
Listen, somebody need a map to understand you.
Somebody need directions to move around you.
Listen, woman, you not a no place anonymous girl.
Mister with his hands on you, he got his hands
on some damn body.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
That gets you through a good day and a half.
[LAUGHTER]