Monday, March 20, 2000
International Women's Day Poetry
Sawf MembersThis issue of Connect commemorates International women's Day (08 March). This is an open section which we hope to build further using readers contributions. We invite Sawf readers add their thoughts / verse to this page. Please send your contributions to Sawf Editor for inclusion on this page. |
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Some lines from Flesh and Paper a sequence of poems, Gillian Hanscombe and I wrote.
But in spite of a hurtful history
shall we speak of a people place
where women may walk freely
in the still, breathable air?
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Suniti Namjoshi
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WOMAN
By- Padmini Natarajan
Miss-Muffet-on-a-tuffet was declared scared
The curl-on-her-forehead-girl got labelled bad
Cinderella was victimised, only saved by a man
Fairy tale heroines, sweetheart, couldn't get it right
The meek, sugary, sweeties are called nice girls
Spirited, talkative lasses get shrewish tags
Adventurous, sporting misses, become tomboys
Teenage maids, my pet, have difficulties all right
The plain homely gal, gets left on the shelf
Models, artistic ones at thirties turn desperate
Ambitious women are lonely spinsters bright
Single women, dearie, are in an awful plight
Married women just work at jobs, stay housewives
Careers are fulfilling at the cost of family life
Divorces, widowhood leave her alone all night
Life is difficult, darling, for ladies outright
Daughters are burdens, sisters mere appends
Mothers too demanding, wives cause friction
In-laws create problems, relationships quarrelsome
The female sex, my love, are society's burdens
The party girl is looked at with suspicion
Friendly madams tarred nymphos, loose one
Reluctant, tired matrons are said to be frigid
Individuality, honey, is plain misunderstood
From America to Australia, China to Finland
Women internationally are always criticized
Nothing you do is approved or esteemed
Whatever you do, dearie, you can't get it right
Tabula Rasa
By- Sujata Venkatraman
I conclude I am a superwoman,
A Nietschze Ubermench in feminine gender.
This eternity I started by a forI m
A spirit striving for the perfect madness
Piecing the jigsaw puzzles of womanhood
Discoursing on dialectics and logical reason
I have re-drawn my mind - into Tabula Rasa.
From the slave of the yesteryear
Caught in a slingshot of prejudicial laws
I stand before you in every walk of life:
Notice who and what I have now become:
The creative spirit not afraid to invent,
The spirited leader not afraid to lead,
The athlete running to the finish line of liberation,
The teacher of little Gargis and Maitreyis,
My freedom is my own: I have no shadow.
Rationalizing an otherwise chaotic world -
My struggles are larger than cupboard ghosts,
I am breaking free of your tepid role models
I shall choose my own health and illnesses
And slowly fit new equations as laws for life.
Thus empirically I conclude: I am a superwoman.
A Nietschze Ubermench in feminine gender.
Where do we go from here?
By- Sujata Venkatraman
Several centuries
Have slipped by between our thin fingers
The Rani of Jhansi asks me from the grave
Are we free and equal at last?
I hang my head: there is so much to do.
My feminine paranoia has no cure,
Some drunken husband is beating his wife,
Some female child has seen her starving grave,
Some woman went with only half the wages
Some woman was raped and could not fight
Some woman married an irregular old chap
And I still have to prove everything I do.
And you call this a hyperbola of my fantasy?
Two droplets of summer
Three teaspoons of hope
Two tablespoons of courage
A jug of education
A sprig of equal laws
Ten sticks of economic liberty
Will you concoct me this elixir
So I may tell the Rani that she may breathe?
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