For All The Mothers & Sisters of the Revolution

I was down with a formidable virus this past weekend, so my Mother’s Day post is a day late. I’m on the mend and wanted to shared this is a poem I wrote for my mother that appeared in my collection A Permeable Life: Poems, Lyrics & Essays and a link to a video for the song Like Molly Brown that celebrates the courage and strength of women, honoring the shoulders we stand upon in our efforts for a better, kinder and more just world.

For me, Mother’s Day is a time for gratitude and remembrance of the gifts given to us by all the strong and loving women in our lives, including the “mothers and sisters” of powerful and positive change.

Women are currently pushing back against those who would question and deny our equal rights as citizens and fully capable human beings. Let me say clearly, there has always been, as there is now, strength, wisdom and determination in the community of women. Let us celebrate those in our lives who led the way, led by example, reminded us that “a song must be sung, one way or another.”

Here’s the video for Like Molly Brown, from Until Now.

Let us continue to celebrate the folks that move the dial, a little bit each day…in how they live their lives…with meaning, courage and most of all love!

Singing in the Kitchen

My mother sang with full abandon 
With the kitchen radio
When she was washing dishes. 
She liked the old songs,
And she’d swing her hips, 
Sashaying as much as a woman can 
When elbow-deep in soapy water. 
I would sit on the hardwood steps 
Filled with pride and wonderment, 
Whispering into my dog’s ear, 
With sage five year-old assurance,
“My mother has the voice of an angel.” 
As I recall, my dog agreed.

Years later,
Standing side by side on Sunday morning,
I was horrified,
In the way only a teenager can be horrified 
When her mother is singing
Loudly and confidently,
Completely and consistently
Off key,
In church,
In public,
In front of her friends.

But now I understand
That my mother was a cautious soul, 
Private and intentional,
And so I am grateful
That she taught me how to hold my little sister’s hand 
And look both ways before I crossed the street.
But I am also thankful
That either she did not know,
Or she did not care,
That her voice was not smooth or perfectly pitched. 
She sang anyway,
Because some things just have to be
Exactly what they are,
And a song must be sung
One way or another.

By Carrie Newcomer  
From A Permeable Life: Poems, Lyrics & Essays
Used by permission

Question

Feel free to comment or lift up the name of a woman, sister or friend who has made a difference in your life!

I’ll start…..Vickie, Nancy, Donna, Norma, Sarah, Doris, Lexie, Jamey, Debbie, LuAnn, Shirley, Krista, Marcia, Coleen, Kappy, Legene, Judy, Jenny, Mary Ann, Michelle, AND soooooooo many more, you know who your are!

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One more week of The Great Wild Mercy Fall through Spring Tour. Ill be finishing out the season with a very exciting show wit Gary Walters, The Gathering of Spirits String Quartet and with all arrangements by Gary Walters. For more info visit www.carrienewcomer.com/tour