INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2025

A celebration of the significance of Women Writers

Good to see you fellas, William, Edgar Allan and Kurt.
Smart to come early, before the parade gets its start.
Well hello, Henry David, Ernest and Leo.
Ah yes, Women Writers, your Sisters you came for.
Of course, they'll have their own day, October 19,
Women Writers, not so well known as you guys, ‘twould seem.

Ah, here comes the first one, Enheduanna, you see:
High priestess of Sumeria, 2300 BC.
Author of 53 poems and hymns.
Imagine ! A woman claiming them.
As she wrote to Inanna, goddess of the moon,
“I’ve given birth, Exalted Lady, to these songs for you.”

Now here come Sappho, Avvalya, and more,
Across all the centuries, shore to shore.
On and on they come, brilliant with delight,
Fulsome with stories, soul-deep with insight.

Agatha, Virginia, Emily and Jane,
Alice and Maya, Toni and Madeleine,
Mary and Zora, Harper and George,
Cornelia, Beatrix, Sylvia and Joyce,
Julia and Anna, Zoe and J.K.,
Audrey and Clarice, and Louisa May…

A tiny sampling, of course, of centuries of time,
Storytellers, essayists, writers of rhyme.

On and on, till at last to thrill your soul,
Along comes that massive float, with all it can hold
Of all ages of women, girls, toddlers and babes
Holding up their tablets, their faces ablaze
With the strength and the power of the things they will write...

Can you see it ?
Can you feel it ?
All that GLORY, all that LIGHT?

ALL THAT LIGHT ….