And Let Us Soar: For All of Us, for the New Year
Jan 1st, 2009 by admin
by Allecto
The world breaks open. Underneath the layers, transcending the past, making the present.
I have seen it written. In the hour of our forced surrender. The world will diminish as the time draws near.
Aching with the lost and ancient tidings, her beginning has come. Rekindling our magic. Lusty, wild and untamed. Recalling to us a time when freedom was a word that had meaning.
Do we have her power? This one that calls to us. Cries out long forgotten secrets. Screams our true names. Falling silent as the moon wanes. She is the one that tells us of the future.
She comes in before the dawn, when our power awakens from the stealthy sleep of those who can ill afford dreams. When half of our world is drowning beneath the man-made weather, whether, weather. When half our world is starving. Sacred ground as dry as dust.
Speak to me of your power. Speak to me in riddles, in a woman’s tongue. This day is coming into being and I need no translation. I can feel you breathing, sisters. The calm static before this long-awaited storm.
Our storm.
We have been without our rain and thunder for far too long…
I smell the tumult of our revolution, rising from the east…
Come to me then, in fury and in rage and with warmth. I will not let the cold decay of this bleaching rancour. I will not let this mindless, bloody, relentless torment hold me any longer. I am breaching the walls of this prison. My love, my heart, myself within my sisters. My sisters in me.
Even death cannot strip us of our elemental power. We sisters do not fear the earth.
Listen to the seasons. Listen to the earth beneath your feet. Breathe with the beauty of her. Sing it out. Sing our tempest into being. And as the storm of us gathers on the horizon, know this. We will not slumber until every woman wakes.
Let the rains come in with the tide. Beat out a rhythm in women’s time. And let us soar.
Allecto wrote the above poem for me in November of 2007. My daughter-in-law, Pramiti, who sometimes comments here, calligraphed portions of Allecto’s poem on beautiful parchment paper, hung the parchment from bend-y, wonderful driftwood, and gave this to me as a Christmas gift. I cried and cried. I am going to try to take a picture of it and post it here– it is incredibly beautiful.
I wanted to repost this beautiful poem tonight because it seems a fitting way to begin 2009. The past year has been so hard for so many of us as women, maybe all of us. I can say without equivocation that in some ways, this past year has been the most painful and difficult of my life. I’m strong and always optimistic, always looking for a better day, so I have weathered the storm and will continue to weather the storms to come, whatever they may be. But this inspiration, encouragement, these beautiful sentiments and this beautiful writing and art mean so much to me! These are what keep me moving forward, putting one foot ahead of the other when it’s so hard to do. We so need each other if we are to build a new world. We need this comfort, encouragement, inspiration and the sharing of strength and gifts.
I loved what Eeni wrote in another thread about the world as women might build it:
Every night while I’m lying in bed before falling asleep (MOST nights -sometimes I’m too tired and just zonk out), I say a thank you prayer to Goddess/Mother and my personal spirit guides… I say thank you for my life, my health, the love that surrounds me, my family and friends (i.e. all the amazing women in my life), the food I eat, the air I breathe, my safety, my privacy/freedom/space, the cozy bed I sleep in, the children that enrich my life, the meaningful work I do, my able mind and body, the ocean and all the life in it, the moon, the trees, the plants and herbs that keep me well, my pets, my books, sunlight, starlight, and just EVERYTHING…
And I send love and gratitude for my Michfest sisters, and all the women of the world. I send love and healing energy to specific women in my life whom I know are having difficulties, and love and healing energy to women everywhere who are being abused, raped, held captive, trafficked by men. And I pray hard for all of us women, everywhere, to join in true sisterhood - to support each other, trust and listen to each other, love one another and ourselves, work together…to bond together so strongly that nothing and no one can hurt us. To create an impenetrable web of sisterhood. Really, that’s my one wish for the world; the manifestation of that alone would be enough to create peace on Earth for not just us but every living creature.
“To create an impenetrable web of sisterhood” — such a fitting offering and meditation, hope, prayer for the New Year!
In Sisterhood and with Great Hope,
Heart
Ah this was beautiful, Heart. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for all you do! And thank you Allecto and Eeni for those beautiful words, so inspiring.
I loved this photo of a spider web and the visionary poem! Thanks Heart and Allecto! We instituted a policy of “spider rescue” in our house. If we see a big spider, we put it on a piece of paper and gently put it out in the yard. Spider webs are magic to me, and we have fun looking at all the styles and webs around our house and out in the yard during “spider season.”
2009 can be a year of great progress and inspiration! Very big indeed! I’d say that it was very stressful and challenging for me, but overall, I actually liked the year. More than ever before I was able to protect women clients from going over the cliff with panic, and I can see women’s businesses as quite successful in Los Angeles, which has more women small business owners than just about anywhere on earth–except perhaps Thailand.
So while we think a year can be good or bad, actually it can be quite engaging depending on what you do with your life.
I’m meeting dynamic and interesting women all over the place. Even my dog helped me find a woman who sings opera in her spare time!
I’m concerned that women are being too pacified by patriarchy, and not conscious enough and proud enough to call themselves feminists. I worry that too much of young lesbian life becomes pornified so easily, and that young lesbians aren’t getting the focus and attention they need because their energies get sucked up in GLBT concerns– translation… transwomen get more funding than lesbians do, or gay male conerns once again wipe lesbian as CENTRAL off the map. Movies like “Milk” are made with the STILL token lesbian character, and that in a city that was brimming with lesbian bookstores, political groups and magazines. Movies have almost all male casts and almost no good women characters, a creepy thing to behold. “Nixon/Frost” being the most recent example. When a film with just about all women are in it, they call it a chick flick, but how about the dick flicks that are much more pervasive?
We have a lot of work to do. I hope that women are able to make good decisions, to spend more time on their education rather than wasting valuable time on the dating scene. I hope that young women either stop having children or put off having them until they are fully developed as adults. This early childbearing is usually a one way ticket to a lifetime of poverty, low level jobs and lack of opportunity.
We can put pressure on the Obama gang about feminist issues, and I hope Hillary can speak out a lot more on international issues that women are stuck with — getting killed by men’s wars, getting used as prostitutes worldwide, getting dehumanized under just about every Islamic government out there.
When you look out a window and see beautiful blooming poisettias or see a lovely sunset, well this reminds me that life is not hard or tragic or bad. 2008 was a dramatic year, but not a bad one for me at all. I was able to accomplish a lot, I found great women who inspired me, I was able to contribute to the cause of women world wide. I remind myself that feminism isn’t all about gloom and doom. In many ways I am much better off than the average straight women in every country of the world. Lesbians have a lot of freedom to move and to be. Many of us have never gotten stuck in the childbearing raising system, so we can spend time reading, walking in parks, going to cultural events or listening to poets at book readings. In our youth, we often travel and live abroad, in our later years our outsider status opens up new opportunities precisely because we are not heteronormative. So I am very happy that I am a lesbian and can report the goodness of lesbian nation.
2009 will be as good a year as we all want it to be!
Satsuma your post has brought tears to my eyes, and that is one gorgeous peace (Dalyesque for piece) of literature by Allecto.
Awfisticuffer, I’m glad you enjoyed my stream of consciousness.
Thanks so much for reposting this poem. I’m touched that the gift meant so much to you. I’d love to see my poem written out in Calligraphy. It sounds beautiful, thanks Pramiti. I do think that this piece is probably the best I’ve ever written. And it was written because of your work, Heart. Your courage and spirit never fail to inspire me to create, write, aspire. I know it is late, but best wishes for the new year, for you, your daughters, daughters in law and your sons. Warm hugs too.
Ah, Allecto. xxxooo
Your work, courage and spirit never fail to inspire ME! So thank you for all you do and for being the amazing Allecto.
Pretty soon I’ll put a photo up of what Pramiti did with your amazing, beautiful poem.
Much love,
Heart