… an old poem,  and it seems timely again

…oOo…

Mother-Warrior

You are brave, you are Brave

You have conquered

You have taken in hand those forces of disintegration that threatened

your existence

You hold them in your hands, your strong hands

They writhe but you hold them fast.

Your strength is a-mazing, your courage awesome.

Your wild hair flies in the wind.

Your wild eyes flame – your mouth too.

Your sun-kissed naked body stands firm on the high boulder

If it falls, it flies. If pierced through, it heals.

Oh Guerillere, Guerillere – female warrior

Your existence overpowers the death beat of the nation.

Your number is growing.

We will take them by storm, we will devour them

transform them in our powerful bodies, excrete them.

With this compost we will cultivate

We will nurture new life.

…

We will do as we have always done.

For a long while now the dynamo has been kept in a sound-proof room under lock and key.

But the dynamo has been seized by those who own it.

Its sound can be heard now

– it is not the loud discordancy of the pnuematic drill.

It is the smooth whirring – of wings beating, of hearts humming.

Its power produces, regenerates.

…

As we have always done, we will do –

Mother-warriors that we are.

© Glenys Livingstone 1980, with additions 2006.

with acknowledgment for imagery to: Monique Wittig, Les Guerilleres. NY: Avon Books, 1973; Robin Morgan, “The Network of the Imaginary Mother”, Lady of the Beasts. NY: Random House, 1976; Charlene Spretnak, The Politics of Women’s Spirituality, NY:Doubleday,1982, p.87.

Published in MODERN WITCH Lughnasad 2008, p.8. and also at Return to Mago, February 20th 2013.

Image from ARAS Record 7Ao.054