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I started writing this protest poem two months ago after reading a 9/1/24 article in The Guardian titled “Afghan women sing in defiance of Taliban laws silencing their voices.” The first few drafts were much longer, and little by little I kept shortening the lines and peeling away words until this narrow iambic dimeter structure emerged with an abba rhyme scheme. Sometimes shorter is better.
Among other reasons, this article caught my attention because for the past few years I’ve been reading about very old earth-centered cultures and rituals, all of which are also woman-centered cultures. Which inevitably means I’ve also been reading about the very long, convoluted, and extremely violent story of various groups of men waging wars on those cultures, which usually manifests simultaneously as waging wars on actual women.
This war is many thousands of years old, so big it’s nearly impossible to wrap your brain around, much less discuss coherently. It waxes and wanes, travels and transforms, erupts physically and submerges psychologically. Women are largely free in the United States, but even here, we’re still living through the latest version of it. In addition to the egregious harms reported (and unreported) in global media, we just watched a deeply patriarchal movement win our federal election.
In this moment, the beauty, bravery, and corporeality of women singing as an act of defiance, even as they lose hard-won freedoms, seems to echo through the ages.
Thanks to Ashifa Kassam and agencies for reporting on this story and to The Guardian for publishing it. Thanks to all the women around the world who continue to shine, speak, write, and sing, and to all the men who honor them.
I hear you singing
I hear you singing
through the veil,
your voice a bell
that knows it’s ringing.
Pure the note
that does not tire,
holy fire
from your throat.
The war is long,
its loss unknown,
with memory sewn
inside your song.
I particularly like the line "with memory sewn
inside your song."
This is a beautiful and powerful poem, written in the time of our most dire need!!!!