Philly Poetry Chapbook Review is pleased to feature Laynie Browne’s poem “The Self-Combed Woman” as our third monthly featured poem from a full-length book for Issue 7: Winter 2025. You can find more poetry in their forthcoming book, Apprentice to a Breathing Hand now available from Omnidawn Publishing.
A Self-Combed Woman
i.
Unpromised, with long braid down back
Kombid, cembam, unkept, combed
When married, her mother rolls plait up to affix
Self-combed women chose to coil their own
Hair signals oath: camb, crest, honey, kambaz
Abandoned red garments of bride
Steps over threshold, to needle and weft
ii.
As silk rose, they found ways to be rid of feudalistic
Kam, kamm, kambr, toothed, scribal carpets
The self-combed women lived together
Even fathers or brothers required permission to enter
Cotton pulled from worsted cloth, forbidden italic
If she changed her mind she would be drowned
Lathe, notched scale, curling wave, ransom
She cannot die in a relative’s home, nor be buried near
A homeless ghost, she may marry a dead man
Ghombhos, from gembh, bitten silvery presence
iii.
When silk fails she moves to Hong Kong or Macau
To Southeastern Seas, becomes a maidservant
Words recited with strokes of a comb—
First stroke, for luck, second for longevity
Outside the hall of ice and jade, men sought her
She implored them to depart, to make no demands
She fled poverty, forced betrothal, gamblers, opium addicts
Worked long hours, slept beside her machine
Connected and reduced curve, irreducible wood
She paid others to read aloud her letters
Recited from memory—aerial weaving comb, beautiful hand
iv.
Clandestine reading at night, in disguise
Abandoned false-bride plots
Search—rake over with comb
She adopts daughters in old age
Heraldic edging, voiced in gold letters
Female consciousness, her veiled body
Intrinsic muslin, handkerchiefs, blankets, bedding
Teeth intersect handle at a single point
Unequal to unique intersection of any other
About the Poem
The term “self-combed woman” refers to a cultural phenomenon of marriage resistance in the Pearl River Delta in Southern China between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. “Self-combed” women chose independence and life-long chastity. Marriage law in 1950 by the Communist state granted women more equality, thus ending the practice.
Author Bio
Laynie Browne is a poet, prose writer, artist, editor and teacher. Her recent books of poetry include: Everyone & Her Resemblances (Pamenar, 2024), Intaglio Daughters (Ornithopter 2023), Practice Has No Sequel (Pamenar 2023), Letters Inscribed in Snow (Tinderbox 2023), and Translation of the Lilies Back into Lists (Wave Books, 2022). In 2024 a solo show of her collage titled “On the Way to the Filmic Woods” was exhibited at the Brodsky Gallery at Kelly Writer’s House. She co-edited the anthology I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues Press) and edited the anthology A Forest on Many Stems: Essays on The Poet’s Novel (Nightboat). Honors include a Pew Fellowship, the National Poetry Series Award for her collection The Scented Fox, and the Contemporary Poetry Series Award for her collection Drawing of a Swan Before Memory. She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
From Apprentice to a Breathing Hand
The poetry of Laynie Browne’s Apprentice to a Breathing Hand explores alchemy, connectivity, and perception. Throughout the collection, Browne considers the formation and limits of personhood, the experience of a body moving through time, and the imperative to continually learn and unlearn. Browne looks to alchemy as a practice for cultivating the impossible, positioning it as a fitting model for our current moment. In the material of language, meaning must be unmade and remade endlessly, and in this continual regeneration, Browne considers the alchemy of how a poem can in turn transform the poet. Moving through methods of making and unmaking, the collection centers on the figure of an apprentice working in a space of indeterminacy, lack, breath, and constant shifting.
Contents
Book Excerpt: Further Thought by Rae Armantrout
Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for January 2025, “Further Thought” from Go Figure by Rae Armantrout, along with a few words from the poet.
Read five poems by poet A.L. Nielsen, our first biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “When We Walked”.
Chapbook Poem: The Poem as an Act of Betrayal by Benjamin S. Grossberg
Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for January 2025, “The Poem as an Act of Betrayal” from As Are Right Fit by Benjamin S. Grossberg, along with a few words from the poet.
Jan. ‘25: Year One: What worked, what didn’t, and what to expect
Editor Aiden Hunt looks back at our first year and discusses changes to Philly Poetry Chapbook Review in 2025.
Three Poems by Shelli Rottschafer
Read three poems by poet Shelli Rottschafer, our second biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “Because We Remember.”
Dancing With the Dead: On Ragnarök at the Father-Daughter Dance by Todd Dillard
“Todd Dillard successfully transgresses the unspoken cultural embargo on work that grapples with life during the COVID-19 pandemic in his new chapbook, Ragnarök at the Father-Daughter Dance.”
Read three poems by poet Wendell Hawken, our third biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “First Hurt”.
Book Excerpt: Slow Chalk by Elaine Equi
Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for February 2025, “Slow Chalk” from Out of the Blank by Elaine Equi, along with a few words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: Caro M. by Angela Siew
Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for February 2025, “Caro M.” from Coming Home by Angela Siew, along with a few words from the poet.
Read four poems by poet Natalie Marino, our fourth biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue.
A Conversation with Kate Colby
Poet Kate Colby discusses her latest chapbook, ThingKing, her creative writing practices, and her penchant for poetry chapbooks with PCR Editor Aiden Hunt in this interview piece.
Read three poems by poet Adele Ross, our fifth biweekly poet of the Winter 2025 issue, along with a few words about the poem “Heavy Water”.
Book Excerpt: The Self-Combed Woman by Laynie Browne
Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for March 2025, “The Self-Combed Woman” from Apprentice to a Breathing Hand by Laynie Browne, along with a few words from the poet.
Chapbook Poem: To Let Go by Deirdre Garr Johns
Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for March 2025, “To Let Go” from Fallen Love by Deirdre Garr Johns, along with a few words from the poet.