Category: Women Writers
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“I Have to Believe that the Body Aspires to a Soul” and other poems by Ann Pedone
I Have to Believe that the Body Aspires to a Soul I tell you/there was something about that woman/her face/undiluted/ lips open/as if she were waiting/for the sky to come/down on her. There was something about it that/I needed to know/something that/I wanted to remember/something/it was the light/that mattered/this woman/gathered/the light/ held it in-side…
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A Celebration of Irish women poets on Bloomsday 2020
‘Words Like Stars’ by Roisin Ní Neachtain How they flow unformed Then fix themselves like the stars Shivering and held up Worshipped And I And they Staggering and squawking Sweating and squabbling Night and day Wobbling words Singing Dust Dust Dust Corrosive mantles Wrought to a stain Stain us Stain the water to the earth…
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“The First Casualty of the Summer” and other poems by Emily S. Cooper
The First Casualty of the Summer Can a dropped ice cream be a joyful sight? A slight of thought, akin to road kill: a dead badger is still a badger that was once alive. Can a spark of juvenile pride (the curl tightly looped to touch the forehead of the whipped pile) be saved…
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“Lady Jesus” and other poems by Arathy Asok
They ask me questions I will not answer They have come to ask of me, Many answers they sought. They did not look at my breasts, Or between my legs. It was my eyes, And inside my head they probed. They put out their hands And broke open my skull; They looked in to see…
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A Celebration of Poetry for International Women’s Day 2020
Papyrus Fragment It darts, bares a blaze of underwing to plain sight; this endless fragile need to make a mark, to come to light Papyrus Fragment is © Annette Skade ‘Secrets of a cartographer’s wife’ by Katrina Dybzynska The cartographer’s wife never told him about her contributions to his maps. A few tiny islands…
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“Sing” and other poems by Jane Clarke
Sing Let choirs make frosty nights sing, let them tell stories of shepherds caring for sheep, a stable, a donkey, a star in the east, while you remember the road to the church in the woods, the battened door, timber trusses, peeling paint and plaster that fell like snow on the christening font and harmonium,…
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“A Life Unanswered” and other poems by Susan Kelly
The Bittersweet Her passion was historical biscuit tins or so he’d tell visitors who marvelled at the growing stacks of embossed lids that glinting with landscapes, landmarks locations she hadn’t seen, he thought it best if the world came to her. He liked her to display these gifts he brought back from places he visited…
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“Dreams of a Happy Ending” by Farideh Hassanzadeh
Dreams of a Happy Ending I throw my nightmare into your arms with all my shaking and sweat, but you stick your hand into my heart to pluck my boobs. I throw my fear of losing words into a book, but you throw your shirt on the clouded pages to let me know “It is…
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“After a deadly aerial engagement, a cup of tea” by Shadab Zeest Hashmi
Past the news of war, you sleep in a litter of cacophony knowing the dead will forever bind their miasma to your hair knot their shrouds to every hook in the house, hem the sound of sirens to your head Between tonight’s brocade sky, inked textile of tomorrow, and tomorrow, there will be an hour…
Chris Murray 