It’s my pleasure to post a review of The Highest Apple – Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition by Judy Grahn (in 2024) re-published by Sinister Wisdom as part of its Sapphic Classic line. The video of the review is above (on YouTube ) and the text of the review is below.
When I heard that Sinister Wisdom was republishing The Highest Apple – Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition by Judy Grahn (in 2024) as part of its Sapphic Classic line, I was very excited. This important book was first published in 1985 by Spinster’s Ink Press.
I tend to think of the 1980s, when I came out in my early twenties, as “the old days” which were quite heady with lesbian culture. I was very influenced by Sappho, Grahn, and the other poets she writes about so eloquently in The Highest Apple, including the poets H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Amy Lowell, Emily Dickenson, and Gertrude Stein as well as the contemporary poets Adrienne Rich, Paula Gun Allen, Audre Lorde, Pat Parker, and Olga Broumas.
I was excited because those days (while far from perfect) greatly influenced me, and I heard all the contemporary poets in this book read from their work in person. I’m not one to be nostalgic, but rereading the lines from Greek-American poet Olga Broumas (from her first book, Beginning With O) :
City-center, mid-
traffic, I
wake to your public kiss, Your name
is Judith, your kiss a sign
to the shocked pedestrians, gathered
beneath the light that means
stop
…
I was filled with memories from “the old days” which included listening to Broumas read her work and talk about her process which involved the Greek tradition of letting the poem well up inside of you, reciting it until it was whole, and then writing it down in its entirety.
So, there was much about The Highest Apple reminiscent of how important this work was, and the importance of the influence of the groundbreaking lesbian poets who were writing and publishing at this time. But this book also spoke to me in the present moment, and Grahn seemed at times to be saying the exact thing that I needed to hear as I read it.
As I have moved on in life, I have become more intersectional, and in recent years I have become vegan. This is something my partner and I have done initially for health reasons (the results turned out to be remarkable), but also in time both of us went through a consciousness-raising about the animals and the planet, making me think more about the universe and my place in it. While rereading the book, what seemed like my mysterious flash of insight about becoming vegan was suddenly illuminated. To become vegan, I had to fully love myself, to embrace all of myself – including my essential lesbian self – and my understanding that came from living under the patriarchy for all these years, led me to where I am now. This was a valuable realization because I am always longing to be whole (in past and present) which is something that Grahn speaks to in this book.
So, I was delighted when I read Grahn’s following paragraph that spoke to me in showing me that The Highest Apple reflects not only my past but also my present and future:
“Lesbian poetry leads itself to its own foundations, and to this idea: the universe is alive, is a place, and we can unite with it; in fact it is essential that we do so. We can build a place for ourselves in it, so long as we understand the stones to be each other; we can reach our long-held apple, the one Sappho held back on the highest branch for us. This is a profoundly feminist and a profoundly poetic and a profoundly Lesbian idea.”
The irony of this important lesbian book being out of print for so long was not lost on me. Important life-changing literature does not have to be burned (as was the case of the classical Greek and Lesbian poet Sappho), but only to be ignored.
Rereading The Highest Apple – Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition by Judy Grahn republished by Sinister Wisdom in 2024 reminded me how lesbian literature can remind us that we are whole in the past, present, and future.This is Janet Mason with commentary for BookTube and Spotify.
To find out more about the rereleased version of The Highest Apple on the Sinister Wisdom website, click here: The Highest Apple | Sinister Wisdom
To read an excerpt of my novel Loving Artemis, published by Thorned Heart Press in 2022,inspired by Sappho, click here:
For more information on my most recent novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love, and marriage, click here:
Janet Mason, author 