“Bless the poets, the workers for justice, the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache, the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh meaning— We will all make it through, despite politics and wars, despite failures and misunderstandings. There is only love.” ― Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems
Our new U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, poet Barbara Buckman Strasko, singer of heartache Judy Catterton,
and visionary Lachlan Brooks are women for our times. Just as we are, here, now.
Read these creative women’s works in full here.
Makers and carriers of fresh meaning, what do your ancestors tell you?
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“We lived between raindrops, afraid to be
cast out with no place to go.
Daughters and their daughters have tried to swim
farther, to move into the sea.
But still my eyes learned to turn in, to cross,
to be crossed out.”
– Barbara Buckman Strasko, excerpt from
“Have Your Eyes Ever Been Crossed or Turned In?,” The Q
“Liquid Sound, Bad Sulza, Germany” by Linda Troeller.
“I’m from tears spilled
on the sterile soil of camps with no conscience.
I have no numbers on my arm,
but millions stand behind me
touching my sleeve
urging me forward.”
– Judy Catterton, excerpt from
“My DNA,” The Q
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“If indifference smothers
You, it is only the excuse you use to abstain from this worldjoy
And worldpain, this grain wherein the world seeds itself,
And learns, in you, to be humane.”
– Lachlan Brooks, excerpt from
“Glass Half,” The Q
