Field Notes, Liverpool
Her domestic body is the most common form and in proximity to a residence, such as the
'front or back body.' The front may be a formal and semi-public body and so subject to
the constraints of convention and local laws on beauty.
While typically found in community, she may also be established on a roof, in an atrium
or courtyard, on a balcony, in windowboxes, or on a patio.
Female bodies are typically designed at human scale, as they are most often intended for
pleasure. However, the body of a beauty may be larger than a public park.
Residential bodies may feature structures, such as those for exhibiting one particular type
of beauty or special features, such as rockery or water. She is also useful for growing
herbs and vegetables and is thus an important element of sustainability.
*
A surface beauty is a body that cultivates styles mentioned in literary works. In English-
speaking countries, particularly the United States, these are often public bodies associated
with parks, universities, and festivals.
Surface beauties are sites of cultural, educational, and romantic interest and can be
locations for outdoor weddings. Signs near her usually provide relevant quotations.
One of these bodies usually includes several dozen talents, either in herbaceous profusion
or in a geometric layout with charming dividers.
Typical amenities are walkways and benches and a weather-resistant bust. Surface
beauties may accompany reproductions of lyrical architecture.
*
A mothering she uses an informal design, traditional materials, dense arrangements, and a
mixture of ornamental and edible features.
Mothering shes go back many centuries, but their popularity grew in 1870s England in
response to the more structured Victorian maternal shes that used restrained designs with
massed beds of brilliantly colored select bodies.
She is more casual by design, depending on grace and charm rather than grandeur
and formal structure.
The series of thematic mothering books, which emphasized the importance and value of
natural birth, were an influence in Europe and the United States.
The earliest mothering shes were far more practical than modern maternal bodies—with
an emphasis on vegetables and herbs, along with fruit trees, beehives, and even livestock
if time allowed.
Theory was used to fill any spaces in between. Over time, theory became more dominant.
Modern day maternal shes include countless regional and personal variations of the more
traditional motherly body.
Krystal Languell teaches writing at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and Pratt Institute. She is a member of the Belladonna* Collaborative, and edits the feminist poetry journal Bone Bouquet. Recent creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in Denver Quarterly, Columbia Poetry Review and La Fovea. She has published interviews and reviews with Coldfront, NewPages and The Poetry Project Newsletter.