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LITERARY NOOK
On International Woman’s Day
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Posted on Mar 08 2023
Here are four excerpts from poems by women poets from the Philippines, Ukraine, China, and Ireland. They are all parts of longer poems. It is my hope readers and teachers will seek out biographies and poems of these notable 20th century women in honor of International Woman’s Day.
Philippines: Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta (1932 – 2010) was a Filipina poet, author, editor, teacher. She is the winner of many awards. Her poems have been translated into Russian, Japanese and Italian.
“… claw at the same straws
pore over the same jigsaws
trying to make heads or tails
you take the edges
I take the center
keeping fancy guard
loving beyond what is there
you sling at the stars
I bedeck the weeds.”
Ukraine: Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) was born in Ukraine, lived most of her life in Odessa, died in Moscow. Survived Josef Stalin’s purges. She is considered the greatest woman poet in Russian literature.
“I have lit my treasured candles, one by one
to hallow this night. With you, who do not come,
I wait for the birth of the year. Dear God!”
China: Qiu Jin (1875 -1907) was a Chinese poet, essayist, fiction writer, feminist activist, and revolutionary.
“Don’t speak of how women can’t become heroes:
alone, I rode the winds eastward for ten-thousand leagues.
My poetic ponderings expanded, a sail between sky and sea,
dreaming of Japan’s three islands, delicate jade under moonlight.”
Ireland: Evangeline Patterson (1928-2000) was born and raised a Protestant in predominantly Roman Catholic Dublin, Ireland. She says, “… I think poetry should reach beyond sex, politics, class and all the other barriers, to the level where we are all human beings trying to live our lives the best way we can in this bewildering world.”
Here is an excerpt from her poem titled, Song For An Innocent:
“Born with such gentleness of you,
with such a pure and trusting face,
how could I tell you what I knew?
This world is not your kind of place.”
