Nancy Lankston
“I am dreaming back my sisters
Whisper-worn footfalls on the Temple steps
Skywalkers
Storm dwellers
Heavy-breasted cauldron keepers
Songweavers
Snake sisters
Darkmoon dancers
Labyrinth builders
Star bridgers
Fiery-eyed dragon-ryders
Wind seekers
Shape shifters
Corn daughters
Wolf women
Earth stewards
Gentle-handed womb sounders
Dream spinners
Flame keepers
Moon birthers
Come home sisters, come home”
~Marie Elena Gaspari
She wants to meet the serpent
Have a chat with Eve in the garden
Before she was banished
For the sin
Of wise curiosity.
She longs to sit with Medusa,
Gazing into her eyes
While M recounts
The whole sordid tale
From her point of view.
She craves dinner with Lilith
And all her beasts
On a beach overlooking a sea of red.
They will talk until the full moon rises
Then dance with Cybele until dawn
She wishes to hear stories of HER
The Great Goddess
Stories that lie long buried
Beneath a pile of myths and legends
Told for millennia in a male voice.
She longs to learn more, so much more
About Her lineage
Her story
Her wisdom
From the she’s who came before.
And so she sits quietly waiting.
She senses every story of Her Is still here,
Hidden in ripples on still water
In bird song at dawn
And the flicker of flame in the night.
So she sits
She listens
She waits
Holding her longing
Close.
~Nancy Lankston
May a good vision catch me
May a benevolent vision take hold of me, and move me
May a deep and full vision come over me, and burst open around me
May a luminous vision inform me, enfold me.
May I awaken into the story that surrounds,
May I awaken into the beautiful story.
May the wondrous story find me;
May the wildness that makes beauty arise between two lovers
arise beautifully between my body and the body of this land,
between my flesh and the flesh of this earth,
here and now,
on this day,
May I taste something sacred.
~David Abram
“Where are you
little girl with broken wings but full of hope?
Where are you
wise woman covered in wounds?
Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
Today is the day I will not sit still and give in anymore,
today I rise.
I am bruised but I will get up and walk again,
today I rise.
I don’t care if you ignore my beauty,
today I rise.
Through the alchemy of my darkest night, I heal and thrive,
today I rise.
I move through the world with confidence and grace.
I open my eyes and am ready to face
my wholeness as a woman and my limitless capacities.
I will walk my path
with audacity,
today I rise.
I reconnect with the many aspects of myself.
I am in awe of the reality I can create.
I am a queen,
I am a healer, a wise woman, a wild woman.
I will rise and be.
I am a rebel I will wake up and fight.
I am a mother and I am a child.
I will no longer disguise my sadness and pain,
I will no longer suffer and complain.
I am black and I am white.
There’s no reason to hurt.
Where are you? Where are you?
I call upon Kali to kiss me to life.
I transform my power and anger,
no more heartache or strife.
The world is missing what I am ready to give,
my wisdom, my sweetness, my love
and my hunger for peace.
I weep with the trees and the rivers
and the earth in distress.
I rise and shine and am ready to go on my quest.
Today I rise without doubt or hesitation,
today I rise without excuses, without procrastination.
Today I call upon my sisters to join
a movement of resoluteness and concern.
Today is my call into action,
to fulfill my mission without further distraction.
Today is the day,
today I will start,
to offer the world the wisdom of my heart”
from Films for Action; filmsforaction.org
I water things now constantly:
water the hearts of dead friends with light,
the sores of the living with anything warm,
water the skies with a thousand affections
and follow the voices of animals
into grasses that move like ocean.
I eat flowers now and birds come.
I eat care and things to love arrive.
I eat time and as I age
whatever I swallow grows timeless.
I eat and undie
and water my doubts
with silence
and birds come.
~Mark Nepo
excerpt from Surviving Has Made Me Crazy
In the past they burned us,
because they thought we were witches.
Just because we knew what to do with herbs outside the kitchen
because we knew how to dance, how to seduce, how to pray.
Because we moved with the cycles of the moon.
In the past they burned us alive
because they knew that we are witches.
So now we cast spells with our mouths
pieces of our hearts spill out.
It is incredible, the power of a woman
who is not afraid to say ‘no’.
No we won’t sit any longer while you ponder on our rights.
On our rights to give or not give life.
On our rights to make another woman our wife.
On our rights to be safe, to get paid an equal wage.
To have a voice, in a place where we might make a change.
It is incredible, the amount of ways they have slayed just to keep us small.
If they could’ve they probably would’ve burned us all.
But they couldn’t with fire so they did it with words.
Laid down laws to determine the amount of our worth.
They kept us in contracts.
They separated our circles.
Erased us from pages
and made labour saving devices our saviors.
It is incredible how quickly knowledge can fade.
How much effort was invested to lead us astray.
But we will not come quietly.
Well, there’s another thing they tried to take away.
Our rights to exclaim our orgasms ecstatically.
We will not come quietly.
We will open our mouths and let our spells spill out.
Cast poetic prayers into the night so that every woman
can hear the howl of her sister’s delight,
reminding her that her voice deserves to be heard.
Let her jaw drop. Let her shame stop.
Let her body scream under the self pleasure of
what it means to be a woman who can speak freely.
You see words, they carry meaning.
They have fooled us for so long that ‘no’ means ‘yes’.
So much so that I’m almost impressed.
Except I finally discovered they’re right.
So I’ve claimed back that ‘no’ as mine.
Because every ‘no’ I throw against their forces
is another ‘yes’ I retain for my own self-worth.
It is a spell cast for my own protection.
It is incredible, the power of a woman
who is not afraid to say NO.
And this old witch?
I’m done with broomsticks.
I’m done with ‘know your place’.
This witch knows that some knowledge
just won’t fade.
That every woman is my sister.
Through the hubble and the bubble
and the toil and the trouble
we grow stronger
when we cast our spells together.
We entered the fire.
Now we rise from the ashes
and we are holding our candles
and lighting our matches
until the night becomes lighter
and our voices can grow
because we have remembered
we are witches
and we have learned to say ‘NO’.
by
Fleassy Malay
☾☽
Listen to Fleassy speak her poem ‘Witches’ here
She’s incredible!
Am I all that you project
and expect of me?
Am I
a good girl
and vicious brat?
a selfless oracle
and manipulative witch?
a perfect partner
and selfish cunt?
a great mom
and controlling bitch?
a clueless child
and wise woman?
WHO AM I?
What if I fit
all of your labels
and none of them
at all?
What if you see
what suits your reality
instead of
who I truly am?
What if
I am who I am
and no one really
knows me at all?
What if I am here
to be my own truth
without needing
you to agree?
What if I allow myself
to be free
to simply
be me?
~Nancy L