The Fireside Secrets by Ailsa Cawley
“The fireside secrets,” by Ailsa Cawley You sat with me as a child saying that there were secrets Held in the fire’s flames Look for the answers there you’d urge The secret will reveal itself if you watch I watched and was watchful as I grew almost forgot The urgency of your message And something drew me back to the flames One night long after you passed I smelled perfume I smelled your scent as I...
Breathing Fee by Tanya Ko Hong
“Breathing Fee” by Tanya Ko Hong Talk about the wood stacked high in the living room and what it costs to breathe in my home— raw wood, oak so long and thick— like a dead elephant stretched wall to wall. He said to acclimate takes time and more money—heartwood slow to open, to breathe— one week became a month and more. I couldn’t breathe just looking at the pile of planks— unusable, forlorn— it had to...
“Have your eyes ever been crossed or turned out?” by Barbara Buckman Strasko, “My DNA” by Judy Catterton, and “Glass Half” by Lachlan Brooks
“Have your eyes ever been crossed or turned out?” by Barbara Buckman Strasko At the eye doctor I hesitate. Each day of my young life I wanted to say what the world looked like to me. And what they said was, Don’t think about that now, don’t see that way, don’t say ─ My great grandmother Rosa Vitoritto Greco remains inside of me a voice that could not speak when she lived. She was left to mind the grocery...
Who Am I?
“Love, the poet said, is woman’s whole existence.” – Virginia Woolf, Orlando Perhaps each of us would respond differently to Woolf’s claim; but if Maya Angelou asserts “love recognizes no barriers” and Linda Hogan reminds us that we are “the result of the love of thousands,” our paradigm of love expands to our ancestors, to the woman next to us and those to come, to our creative practice, to...
Mirrors, Trail Finders, and Citizens
“As a woman my country is the whole world.” – Virginia Woolf As we continue to imagine a borderless song-map together, may we mirror one another’s truths and doubts, lose our trail and find it, and claim the light of our dreams. We invite you to read Molly Howes, Alison Hicks, and Monteque Pope-Le Beau’s pensive poetry submissions to “Where I Am From” in full below. ...