International Women’s Day 2023 (Thoughts, and Two Poems)

/ Katie

It’s International Women’s Day! Unfortunately, I’ve been feeling under the weather, so I haven’t done much to celebrate, and my brain feels too foggy to write something really good. So, I’ll just say this:

I’m thankful for the amazing women in my life, and the strong, brave women who came before us. I’m proud of the women who dream, and who love, and who go on when it feels impossible. We are heroes, rock stars, the glue that keeps this broken world together. If I had to choose a million times, I would still choose to be a woman, even when it’s hard and unfair. I carry the universe in me. All women do.

And I’ll share a couple of my favorite poems I’ve written in the past. I hope you enjoy them! And I hope that you tell the women in your life today – and yourself, if you’re a woman (yes, ALL women) – just how wonderful and unbreakable and valuable and worthy and loved they are.

************

To the Women Who Came Before

To you,
the women,
the warriors and weavers and
witches and wanderers,
the brave and bold
who came before,
I promise this:

My light will magnify your light.
I will shine because
you reached for the sky
and grabbed the sun and moon and stars
to fight the darkness.

Your words,
your courage,
your heart,
your home –
the one you made with your own hands –
will live on in me.

I will stand and speak.
My voice will carry as yours,
over the mountains you climbed,
across the sands of time
and the pillars and platforms you built.
I won’t make myself small
just to fit into the corners
of a world made and sustained
by mothers.

I cradle your wisdom in my soul
because you carved a place for it.
I will keep that place
sacred and whole.
I will nurture the fire you lit
and pass the eternal torch.

************

Eve

A story we’ve heard:
The first of us all
(to fall) –
help-meet and wife,
made and prized,
then punished,
removed and reviled.
The woman who
became a warning.

And history became
both judge and jury,
gave us no choice,
no voice.
The story became ours,
but it never belonged to us.
And before, and now,
down in our bones
we know it.

We know:
It is human to fall
and rise again,
to seek,
to learn,
to live in curiosity.
And so,
can we reclaim her,
weave her story anew
and see her,
this mother of mothers?

Blood of our blood –
can we finally love
(not blame)
her?

17 thoughts on “International Women’s Day 2023 (Thoughts, and Two Poems)”

  1. Thank you, Katie, for the incredible poems, your inspiring words and for the awesome woman you are. When I was coming of age and began in the work place, male voices tried to pit us against each other. They said women would not support other women; they said the leaders needed a deep voice. Those of us who had strong women in our lives, women who toiled beside the husbands and fathers and sons and brothers and making a life when there were those who would deny your dreams knew that it was not true even when there were those who worked so to make it appear true.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thank you for your kind words! You, too, are awesome, and I’m so glad we’ve connected here. 🙂

      I think this is still something that happens, which is sad and so unfortunate. I’ve heard from several of my friends that they’ve experienced competition and backstabbing from other women in the workplace, but I also know so many women who love and support each other, and who help each other shine. I try to be one of those women, and lead by example. I’m intensely proud of the women in my life, and their success makes me genuinely happy. I figure, if more of us see women supporting each other, we can continue to bust up the myth that women can’t do that. And now I’m done rambling. 🙂 But it’s an important ramble.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Indeed, and I know this is definitely a preaching to the choir moment. But we women gotta stick together, right? 🙂 I really am so glad to be connected with you, and with so many other amazing, creative women, here on WordPress. I feel very lucky.

        Liked by 1 person

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