Remember My Name

When you remember my walk upon this earth

Look not into my steps with pity.

When you taste the tears of my journey

Notice how they fill my foot prints

Not my spirit

For that remains with me.

My story must be told

Must remain in conscious memory

So my daughters won’t cry my tears

Or follow my tortured legacy.

Lovin’

is a tricky thing

If it doesn’t come

from a healthy place,

If Lovin’

Doesn’t FIRST practice

on self

stray bullet

not caring what it hits

You may say:

Maybe I should’ve loved him a little less

Maybe I should’ve loved me a little more,

Maybe I should’ve not believed he’d never hit me again.

All those maybes will not bring me back – not right his wrong.

My life was not his to take.

As your eyes glance my name

Understand once I breathed

Walked

Loved

just like you.

I wish for all who glance my name

To know love turned fear – kept me there

Loved twisted to fear,

Kept me in a chokehold

Cut off my air

Blurred my vision

I couldn’t see how to break free.

I shoulda, told my family

I shoulda told my friends

I shoulda got that CPO

Before the police let him go

But all those shoulda’s can’t bring me back

when I lied so well

To cover the shame

To hide the signs.

If my death had to show

what love isn’t

If my death had to show

that love shouldn’t hurt

If my death had to make sure

another woman told a friend

instead of holding it in

If my death reminds you

how beautiful

how worthy

you really are

If my death reminds you

to honor all you are

daily

Then remember my name

Shout it

from the center of your soul

Wake me

in my grave

Let ME know

My LIVING was not in vain.

 Kimberly A. Collins

Quote of the Day

“If someone loves you, it should feel like they love you.”

Source Unknown

The Rights of Woman

(The following was written in response to Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women)

YES, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!

Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest;

O born to rule in partial Law's despite,

Resume thy native empire o'er the breast!

Go forth arrayed in panoply divine;

That angel pureness which admits no stain;

Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign,

And kiss the golden sceptre of thy reign.

Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store

Of bright artillery glancing from afar;

Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon's roar,

Blushes and fears thy magazine of war.

Thy rights are empire: urge no meaner claim,--

Felt, not defined, and if debated, lost;

Like sacred mysteries, which withheld from fame,

Shunning discussion, are revered the most.

Try all that wit and art suggest to bend

Of thy imperial foe the stubborn knee;

Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy friend;

Thou mayst command, but never canst be free.

Awe the licentious, and restrain the rude;

Soften the sullen, clear the cloudy brow:

Be, more than princes' gifts, thy favours sued;--

She hazards all, who will the least allow.

But hope not, courted idol of mankind,

On this proud eminence secure to stay;

Subduing and subdued, thou soon shalt find

Thy coldness soften, and thy pride give way.

Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought,

Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move,

In Nature's school, by her soft maxims taught,

That separate rights are lost in mutual love. 

 

Anna Letitia Barbauld

The Relationship Spectrum

Quote of the Day

“I will not allow anyone, especially the abuser, to tell me who I am!”

Source Unknown

Quote of the Day

“Real courage owns up to the fact that we face a terrifying task, admitting that we are appropriately frightened, identifying sources of help and strength outside and within ourselves, and then going ahead and doing what needs to be done.”

Dr. Alla Renne Bozarth

Stop All the Clocks

He was my North, my South,

my East and West,

My working week

and Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight,

my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last forever:

I was wrong.

W. H. Auden

Inscription under the Picture of an Aged Negro-woman done

Art thou a woman? -- so am I; and all 

That woman can be, I have been, or am;

A daughter, sister, consort, mother, widow.

Whiche'er of these thou art, O be the friend

Of one who is what thou canst never be!

Look on thyself, thy kindred, home, and country,

Then fall upon thy knees, and cry "Thank GOD,

An English woman cannot be a SLAVE!"

Art thou a man? -- Oh! I have known, have loved,

And lost, all that to woman man can be;

A father, brother, husband, son, who shared

My bliss in freedom, and my woe in bondage.

-- A childless widow now, a friendless slave,

What shall I ask of thee, since I have nought

To lose but life's sad burden; nought to gain

But heaven's repose? -- these are beyond thy power;

Me thou canst neither wrong nor help; -- what then?

Go to the bosom of thy family,

Gather thy little children round thy knees,

Gaze on their innocence; their clear, full eyes,

All fix'd on thine; and in their mother, mark

The loveliest look that woman's face can wear,

Her look of love, beholding them and thee:

Then, at the altar of your household joys,

Vow one by one, vow altogether, vow

With heart and voice, eternal enmity 

Against oppression by your brethern's hands:

Till man nor woman under Britain's laws,

Nor son nor daughter born within her empire,

Shall buy, or sell, or hold, or be, a slave.

James Montgomery

One Billion Rising, February 14, 2013

 Please spread far and wide.

One in every three women on the planet will be raped or beaten during her lifetime.  It's time to end this violence.  That is why Eve Ensler wants you to join her campaign.  Events  are planned all across the globe. Find a Rising Near You to find the event nearest you, and GO HERE to learn the flash mob dance "Break The Chain" at home 

"Dance is dangerous, joyous, sexual, holy, disruptive, contagious, it breaks the rules. 

It can happen anywhere, anytime, with anyone and everyone, and it's free.

Dancing insists we take up space, we go there together in community.

Dance joins us and pushes us to go further and that is why it's at the center of ONE BILLION RISING.

With infectious music and lyrics from Tena Clark, amazing vocals by a talented group of V-Girls,

and Debbie Allen’s bold choreography, Break The Chain is the anthem that will call up one billion to rise.”

- Eve Ensler

http://onebillionrising.org/

Will you be one of the One Billion Rising this Valentine's Day? 

One Woman's Voice Against War

I

The voice of my sisters I hear (Oh voice of the summer leaves!

Oh voice of the murmuring waters! Oh, light if it laughs or it grieves!)

They are sending you forth, O men; they are bidding you arm straightway;

But they see not, as I can see, men biting the dust in the fray,

They see not, as I can see, men pouring the blood of the brave--

And the craven, at home, survives, while the hero sleeps in his grave!

They see not, as I can see--that their daughters' daughters shall wed

With the sons of the craven, born of the blood too pale to be shed!

They see not, the money-changers unscourged in the temple remain,

When those that were fearless to strike--the best of the nation are slain;

For the veins of a race once shrunken, the hearts of the race beat low,

And the valor we worshipped--a flame unfed--no longer shall glow!

II

The voice of my sisters I hear: "We offer our dearest, our all,

Father, and brother, and lover, for country, if need be, to fall!

What more can we pledge than we pledge--as daughters, as sisters, as wives?"

Let the voice of my sisters be mute, for they hold their inviolate lives!

Not a hair of their heads shall be stirred by the wind of the winnowing shot;

They shall not languish in prison, nor in the dull earth be forgot!

One is the life of each mortal--and that is not theirs, which they yield!

Let them be hushed to remember the breast of the man is their shield:

Not till her life she shall peril on battle's shivering edge,

The soul of a woman shall waken, to know how costly the pledge!

III

The voice of my sisters forgive! Forgive them, ye men who are theirs;

For they know not the words they utter, sending ye forth, though with prayers.

I have none of my own to send forth; but, for swordmen doomed to the sword,

Tears were my daily drink, were the blood of the meanest out-poured!

Awake, or asleep, I should see the dark stream with the life taking flight--

The damp of the death-dew beading--the eye without vision or light!

My sisters--they see not the sight, or their lips would be holden of speech,

And the voice of their hearts, ever sleepless, for "peace," and but "peace!" would beseech.

by: Edith Matilda Thomas (1854-1925)

Quote of the Day

A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, 'Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children.

Betty Friedan