“i was saved by the beauty of the world” says mary oliver

“knowing better and you’re doing better”, encouraged by toni morrison

 

do you recall any wisdom

from women of influence?

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i myself have had to work hard to curate their voices to encourage me

not because my mother had none

but because around me, i could neither read nor see any

 

i was trained in the western manner, where philosophy was defined by descartes

where art was the vantage point of picasso’s eyes. passive, invisible, inconvenient.

 

and even many spiritual figures who i had internalized, somehow,

bore no female name.

 

so i read and paint now, looking for the cues

of women in their excellence

 

it was far too long before i could start to look for it in myself. but it’s there

 

and it’s there in each of us.

 

Sometimes, in my quiet doubting moments i remember

the words of morrison, mary, michelle, my mom

 

and remember a bridge to connect us is already there; their words, their magnetic power

we use the same words, i have used each word before.

 

so to take these words and put them into prayer

each word moves me to lay the paint, like a ritual

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and before me, illuminate the portrait of the goddess within us.