Poem-a-Day - "The blue nightgown" by Toi Derricotte

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February 11, 2021  

The blue nightgown


Toi Derricotte
Can a simple dress become a coping mechanism?
            —NPR August 18, 2020

So many years of misguided self-reflection,
examining every curve in the mirror! Alone,
locked down, I buy online three ice blue
nightgowns I discover I can live in. I glide
through living room, dining room, hall, off the floor
slightly; like the great opera stars of the 20th century,
I’m dressed for singing! My kitchen becomes the stage
of the Met. Cutting the garlic, my hand floats, my
large self floats; I breathe in & out, completely;
the blue nightgown floating around my ankles.

Copyright © 2021 by Toi Derricotte. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 11, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“Isolated, cooking more and feeling bad about my ever-tightening jeans, writing ‘The blue nightgown’ was like imagining a new self, as if I was putting on a skin in which I felt expansive yet light, self-contented, beautiful and relaxed. As a woman of color, feeling comfortable in my skin involved a second kind of imagining. I needed models, so the majestic black opera stars Jessye Norman and Leontyne Price came along, invisibly propping me up! I believe that form should follow function, so I wanted the form to feel natural and easy.”
Toi Derricotte

Toi Derricotte’s sixth collection of poetry I: New and Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), was shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award. With Cornelius Eady, she co-founded Cave Canem, a home for the many voices of African American poetry. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


I: New and Selected Poems
(University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019)

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“This Body” by Renée Watson
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Thanks to Rachel Eliza Griffiths, author of Seeing the Body (W. W. Norton, 2020), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a Q&A about Griffiths’ curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year
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