"I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady with a fused spine and three feet of intestines missing and a lot of people think I'm crazy. Maybe you do too, but I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me."~Florynce Kennedy
"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak." ~Audre Lorde
"To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they're blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too." ~Victoria Moran
When somebody says to me, which they do like, every five years, 'How does it feel to be over the hill?'My response is,'I'm just heading up the mountain.' "~ Joan Baez
OMG I can't imagine someone saying that to me. The "me" in my avatar is how I view myself. Are you on FB, LaTonya? I'm always going up the mountain to find more.
I need to know their names those women I would have walked with, jauntily the way men go in groups swinging their arms, and the ones those sweating women whom I would have joined After a hard game to chew the fat what would we have called each other laughing joking into our beer? where are my gangs, my teams, my mislaid sisters? all the women who could have known me, where in the world are their names?"
Dipping our bread in oil tins we talked of morning peeling open our rooms to a moment of almonds, olives and wind when we did not yet know what we were. The days in Mallorca were alike: footprints down goat-paths from the beds we had left, at night the stars locked to darkness. At that time we were learning to dance, take our clothes in our fingers and open ourselves to their hands. The veranera was with us. For a month the almond trees bloomed, their droppings the delicate silks we removed when each time a touch took us closer to the window where we whispered yes, there on the intricate balconies of breath, overlooking the rest of our lives.
Clearly older women and especially older women who have led an active life or elder women who successfully maneuver through their own family life have so much to teach us about sharing, patience, and wisdom. ~Alice Walker
"Not only is your story worth telling, but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a song."~ Gloria Naylor
ReplyDelete"I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady with a fused spine and three feet of intestines missing and a lot of people think I'm crazy. Maybe you do too, but I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me."~Florynce Kennedy
ReplyDelete"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak." ~Audre Lorde
ReplyDelete"To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they're blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too." ~Victoria Moran
ReplyDeleteWhen somebody says to me, which they do like, every five years, 'How does it feel to be over the hill?'My response is,'I'm just heading up the mountain.' "~ Joan Baez
ReplyDeleteOMG I can't imagine someone saying that to me. The "me" in my avatar is how I view myself. Are you on FB, LaTonya? I'm always going up the mountain to find more.
Delete“I want to be someone making music/with my coming.”
ReplyDelete― Naomi Shihab Nye, A Maze Me: Poems for Girls
"the lost women
ReplyDeleteI need to know their names
those women I would have walked with,
jauntily the way men go in groups
swinging their arms, and the ones
those sweating women whom I would have joined
After a hard game to chew the fat
what would we have called each other laughing
joking into our beer? where are my gangs,
my teams, my mislaid sisters?
all the women who could have known me,
where in the world are their names?"
~Lucille Clifton
Poem for Maya
ReplyDeleteDipping our bread in oil tins
we talked of morning peeling
open our rooms to a moment
of almonds, olives and wind
when we did not yet know what we were.
The days in Mallorca were alike:
footprints down goat-paths
from the beds we had left,
at night the stars locked to darkness.
At that time we were learning
to dance, take our clothes
in our fingers and open
ourselves to their hands.
The veranera was with us.
For a month the almond trees bloomed,
their droppings the delicate silks
we removed when each time a touch
took us closer to the window where
we whispered yes, there on the intricate
balconies of breath, overlooking
the rest of our lives.
~Carolyn Forche
"You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now."
ReplyDelete~Joan Baez
“The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings." ~Audre Lorde
ReplyDelete"[F]riends have been so important to my growth and survival.
ReplyDelete~Thulani Davis"
Clearly older women and especially older women who have led an active life or elder women who successfully maneuver through their own family life have so much to teach us about sharing, patience, and wisdom. ~Alice Walker
ReplyDeleteStarted reading Audre Lord ... oh in the mid 70s? La Tonya my sister - your blog is spectacular.
ReplyDelete