Politics must not remain a bastion of male dominance, for there is much that women can bring into politics that would make our world a kinder, gentler place for humanity to thrive in. - Corazon Aquino
In her blog, “The Power of Poetry in Today’s World”, Fiona Brown states,
“Poetry may not seem like the obvious vehicle for honing in on what needs to be said. But, I’d argue that poetry is an important way to express the individuality of our voices, our joy, and our pain. In fact, it seems to me that one of the many missions of poetry is to elevate language to a level that can express the specific temperament of individual experience. Through poetry, we can understand an otherwise subjective occurrence. A poem can take us out of the isolation of silence, or powerlessness, and into a shared human experience.”
Womensvoice1 exists to convey a message; primarily one of peaceful social change through poetry and art. I embrace the men and women who read my blog out of curiosity, or because they too believe that if women had a greater voice, the world would be a better place.
This week I am focusing on poems and quotations that spark thought about the role women play in society. I have picked a few that have their own message, each combining to form a brief picture of how Women can solicit change and their Status quo, and embrace their femininity to energize that movement.
“Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry. Yes indeed.”
Mary Oliver
To The Indifferent Women
by Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
You who are happy in a thousand homes,
Or overworked therein, to a dumb peace
Whose souls are wholly centered in the life
Of that small group you personally love–
Who told you that you need not know or care
About the sin and sorrow of the world?
Do you believe the sorrow of the world
Does not concern you in your little homes?
That you are licensed to avoid the care
And toil for human progress, human peace,
And the enlargement of our power of love
Until it covers every field of life?
The one first duty of all human life
Is to promote the progress of the world
In righteousness, in wisdom, truth and love;
And you ignore it, hidden in your homes,
Content to keep them in uncertain peace,
Content to leave all else without your care.
Yet you are mothers! And a mother's care
Is the first step towards friendly human life.
Life where all nations in untroubled peace
Unite to raise the standard of the world
And make the happiness we seek in homes
Spread everywhere in strong and fruitful love.
You are content to keep that mighty love
In its first steps forever; the crude care
Of animals for mate and young and homes,
Instead of poring it abroad in life,
Its mighty current feeding all the world
Till every human child shall grow in peace.
You cannot keep your small domestic peace,
Your little pool of undeveloped love,
While the neglected, starved, unmothered world
Struggles and fights for lack of mother's care,
And its tempestuous, bitter, broken life
Beats in upon you in your selfish homes.
We all may have our homes in joy and peace
When woman's life, in its rich power of love
Is joined with man's to care for all the world!
"The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world. - Charles Malik"
The laughter Of Women - Poem by Lisel Mueller
The laughter of women sets fire
to the Halls of Injustice
and the false evidence burns
to a beautiful white lightness
It rattles the Chambers of Congress
and forces the windows wide open
so the fatuous speeches can fly out
The laughter of women wipes the mist
from the spectacles of the old;
it infects them with a happy flu
and they laugh as if they were young again
Prisoners held in underground cells
imagine that they see daylight
when they remember the laughter of women
It runs across water that divides,
and reconciles two unfriendly shores
like flares that signal the news to each other
What a language it is, the laughter of women,
high-flying and subversive.
Long before law and scripture
we heard the laughter, we understood freedom.
Lisel Mueller
"Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever. "- Nancy Kerrigan
Phenomenal Woman - Poem by Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Maya Angelou
The Journey, by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
“Through poetry, the unspeakable can be spoken, the unendurable endured, and the miraculous shared” Eve Ensler
Women are particularly effective in promoting honest government.
Countries where women are supported as leaders have correspondingly lower levels of corruption.
Women are strongly linked to positive developments in education, infrastructure and health standards at the local level. Where rates of gender development and empowerment are higher, human rates of development and standards of living are also higher.
Having a greater Female voice in the world could significantly change the world for the better, and bring us into that shared human experience.
For Womankind, by Susan Golden
The realization
that your nation
doesn't represent you
as one voice
The provocation
that your imagination
is deception
not your choice
Can't think of an explanation
except deceit of a nation
Seems like pseudo- treason
to apply reason
911 destruction
inspires new construction
Oppose nemesis
with brave genesis
When the moon of compassion
rises up female fashion
and Woman stands to be counted
amongst the ashes of wisdom
then the Statue of Liberty
will have a new identity
So rise women of all corners
bring reassurance to our mourners
We give birth to something greater
than our War Lords and their Maters
Revolution
Evolution
Constitution
It is coming
It is coming
Excerpt From: Golden, Susan. The Moon of Compassion.
2014. iBooks.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/8H_m1.l
In her blog, “The Power of Poetry in Today’s World”, Fiona Brown states,
“Poetry may not seem like the obvious vehicle for honing in on what needs to be said. But, I’d argue that poetry is an important way to express the individuality of our voices, our joy, and our pain. In fact, it seems to me that one of the many missions of poetry is to elevate language to a level that can express the specific temperament of individual experience. Through poetry, we can understand an otherwise subjective occurrence. A poem can take us out of the isolation of silence, or powerlessness, and into a shared human experience.”
Womensvoice1 exists to convey a message; primarily one of peaceful social change through poetry and art. I embrace the men and women who read my blog out of curiosity, or because they too believe that if women had a greater voice, the world would be a better place.
This week I am focusing on poems and quotations that spark thought about the role women play in society. I have picked a few that have their own message, each combining to form a brief picture of how Women can solicit change and their Status quo, and embrace their femininity to energize that movement.
“Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry. Yes indeed.”
Mary Oliver
To The Indifferent Women
by Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman
You who are happy in a thousand homes,
Or overworked therein, to a dumb peace
Whose souls are wholly centered in the life
Of that small group you personally love–
Who told you that you need not know or care
About the sin and sorrow of the world?
Do you believe the sorrow of the world
Does not concern you in your little homes?
That you are licensed to avoid the care
And toil for human progress, human peace,
And the enlargement of our power of love
Until it covers every field of life?
The one first duty of all human life
Is to promote the progress of the world
In righteousness, in wisdom, truth and love;
And you ignore it, hidden in your homes,
Content to keep them in uncertain peace,
Content to leave all else without your care.
Yet you are mothers! And a mother's care
Is the first step towards friendly human life.
Life where all nations in untroubled peace
Unite to raise the standard of the world
And make the happiness we seek in homes
Spread everywhere in strong and fruitful love.
You are content to keep that mighty love
In its first steps forever; the crude care
Of animals for mate and young and homes,
Instead of poring it abroad in life,
Its mighty current feeding all the world
Till every human child shall grow in peace.
You cannot keep your small domestic peace,
Your little pool of undeveloped love,
While the neglected, starved, unmothered world
Struggles and fights for lack of mother's care,
And its tempestuous, bitter, broken life
Beats in upon you in your selfish homes.
We all may have our homes in joy and peace
When woman's life, in its rich power of love
Is joined with man's to care for all the world!
"The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world. - Charles Malik"
The laughter Of Women - Poem by Lisel Mueller
The laughter of women sets fire
to the Halls of Injustice
and the false evidence burns
to a beautiful white lightness
It rattles the Chambers of Congress
and forces the windows wide open
so the fatuous speeches can fly out
The laughter of women wipes the mist
from the spectacles of the old;
it infects them with a happy flu
and they laugh as if they were young again
Prisoners held in underground cells
imagine that they see daylight
when they remember the laughter of women
It runs across water that divides,
and reconciles two unfriendly shores
like flares that signal the news to each other
What a language it is, the laughter of women,
high-flying and subversive.
Long before law and scripture
we heard the laughter, we understood freedom.
Lisel Mueller
"Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever. "- Nancy Kerrigan
Phenomenal Woman - Poem by Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Maya Angelou
The Journey, by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
“Through poetry, the unspeakable can be spoken, the unendurable endured, and the miraculous shared” Eve Ensler
Women are particularly effective in promoting honest government.
Countries where women are supported as leaders have correspondingly lower levels of corruption.
Women are strongly linked to positive developments in education, infrastructure and health standards at the local level. Where rates of gender development and empowerment are higher, human rates of development and standards of living are also higher.
Having a greater Female voice in the world could significantly change the world for the better, and bring us into that shared human experience.
For Womankind, by Susan Golden
The realization
that your nation
doesn't represent you
as one voice
The provocation
that your imagination
is deception
not your choice
Can't think of an explanation
except deceit of a nation
Seems like pseudo- treason
to apply reason
911 destruction
inspires new construction
Oppose nemesis
with brave genesis
When the moon of compassion
rises up female fashion
and Woman stands to be counted
amongst the ashes of wisdom
then the Statue of Liberty
will have a new identity
So rise women of all corners
bring reassurance to our mourners
We give birth to something greater
than our War Lords and their Maters
Revolution
Evolution
Constitution
It is coming
It is coming
Excerpt From: Golden, Susan. The Moon of Compassion.
2014. iBooks.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/8H_m1.l
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