Celebrating Women's Equality Day with Poetry

August 26 is Women's Equality Day! I am celebrating by sharing a poem with you--something I rarely do because publishers often eschew publishing literary work that has appeared on the Web--or elsewhere!  These, however, already appeared "elsewhere"--in my chapbook of poetry called Deeper in the Pond coauthored with Magdalena Ball, owner and editor of CompulsiveReader.com. One of her poems is included.  Part of our multi award-winning Celebration Series, this chapbook was intended as a celebration of women everywhere, especially for Women's Day.  It seems even more suited to Women's Equality Day.

If you like the idea, please share and pass along the sentiment that women still have a long way to go! We readily give permission for use of our work for projects related to women's needs. Contact Carolyn on Twitter @frugalbookpromo or Magdalena @magdalenaball with plans for your project.

Narcissus Revisited

Wish not but work. 

We need more than what we have. 

Let us be measured

not for height or at the hip

but for the our roles.

Compensate us for compassion

so we might look beyond 

our foyers with that rare 

and precious skill. 

I may not want,

but many of my kind do. Women.

Hidden, squeezed, ignored, ridiculed,

manipulated, raped, murdered. 

Pain, poverty, politics. All enemies’

dark shadows, seaweed undulating

beneath the sheen 

of the life I live. 

            Even when I gaze deep 

            and recognize algae

            there, feel their vile shapes,

            I do not recognize hubris,

            lurking among them, women’s 

            worst foe. Those who feel 

            new freedoms like I, some later-borns 

unaware that they are new, accept

the yellow-bright shimmer 

spread across the surface 

as if it were our doing 

                                                     

or our due.

Acceptance works best

when paired with gratitude

Why then do we forget

            what others did for us,

            what there is yet to do?

                        

Narcissus knows her own 

reflection well. She forgets 

to peer under burkas, in our jails,

in the beds of the abused, 

deeper, deeper into the pond 

beneath, where some 

                        still suffocate. 

~Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Beastly Work

At the tail end of mercy

biting, fighting

sorespun parchment

eyes its creator

with contempt.

On the spur

of warmth

vast cloud of cold gas

everywhere else

making, remaking

destroying

building again.

No one would choose

to call this work

no pay could compensate

no goal lofty enough

no endeavour ever

successful.

It’s more like

affliction.

Why

when the bed’s so soft

floor so dirty

everyone else wants something

other than your

prodigious output 

do you continue

tearing

toiling

working

the awful muse? 

~Magdalena Ball

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the award-winning second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor. Her latest is in the series is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page, http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers is one of her booklets--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and, another booklet, The Great First Impression Book Proposal helps writers who want to be traditionally published. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. In addition to this blog, she helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com) She generously shares her poetry with those who share her passions from women's rights to preservation and improvement of our environment. 

Mother's Day Free Poetry Tribute to a Recently Deceased Mom

There are times when writing can help us heal and I asked my poetry coauthor Magdalena Ball if I could share this with my SharingwithWriters subscribers and visitors today--for that reason and because it so touched me that it felt a fitting tribute to my mother who hasn't been with me for some time.  Thank you, Magdalena.

And because this blog is always meant to be practical and I think this a perfect example of how to market with heart.

This post comes to good mothers everywhere--mothers who encourage us to write (or do anything else we want to do). Mothers who unknowingly inspire us to write.

BITTERSWEET MOTHER'S DAY AND POETRY

by Magdalena Ball


This Mother's Day will be bittersweet for me.  Sweet, because I have three wonderful children and a terrific husband who will be celebrating the day with me.  Bitter, because it's the first Mother's Day ever where I am unable to phone my mother, send her a gift, or thank her for being wonderful.  I will, of course, spend the day, as I have done every day since she passed away on the 30th of January this year, thinking about her, missing her, and perhaps writing about her.


At my mother's memorial, I grabbed a copy of the poetry book Carolyn Howard-Johnson and I co-authored from her bookshelf, and read a poem from it about how I used to climb into her bed as a young child, and how safe it felt to me (my own children did the same when they were younger...).  I've reprinted that poem below. Of course, I'm not the only one in the world who has lost my mother.  She Wore Emerald Then was released the week of the death of Carolyn’s mother, so the book, which has always been tied to Mother's Day, has a certain poignancy for both of us.  Carolyn and I are going to be running another freebie this year from the 4th of May to the 7th of May at Amazon.  If you don't already have a copy of She Wore Emerald Then, which features beautiful photography from May Lattanzio, please go and grab a copy for free here:  http://www.amazon.com/She-Wore-Emerald-Then-Reflections-ebook/dp/B00BXPW2XO  anytime from the 4th to the 7th of May (US dates).

If you're a mother, or if you have a mother (and that's all of us, even those of us whose mother is no longer alive), please have a happy Mother's Day, even if that happiness is tinged with longing, because every beautiful moment has a kind of permanence to it, even as it disappears into the transience of time. 

Mother's Bed
In the restless night

when mortality lurks in every shadow

the blanket won’t cover your fear

and morning is a half-forgotten dream

vague and uncertain,

slink into my bed

the pillow holds a mother’s secret

whispered charm

you can sink your head into.

There are no demons here;

no whirlwind of memory and anticipation clouding sleep

only eternal warmth

a shared space

free from the ticking illusion

of time, motion, and change.

~Magdalena Ball, novelist and coauthor of the celebration series of chapbooks

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .