January 2025
Author's Note: Some months ago I offered two poems in Verse Virtual from my 2024 chapbook, The Unknown Daughter. Today I look with deep concern at politics playing out involving women. I offer two more poems from The Unknown Daughter that speak to bringing forward the unknown women in our world who have offered so much and how we acknowledge them. Experience inspired these poems.
Many Unknowns
Simple roles often following
the word his – influencer, inspiration,
amanuensis, sister, wife, mother,
or daughter.
Unacknowledged
in undiscovered symphonies,
unhung paintings, even the lament
involving Wulf and Eadwacer
with no poet’s name.
Or lost in time, the ones who
sold sweet potato pies to
raise money for civil rights actions,
baked pot brownies for AIDS patients,
fought arranged marriages, assisted
Tutsis fleeing death in Rwanda, spied
dressed in men’s clothing to confuse
armies, ruled as queens in Nubia,
hefted swords as pirates, organized
farm workers, warned of climate change
in 1856, sneaked into the marathon road race,
discovered a way to treat malaria, studied
invented coffee filters, studied volcanos.
Became firsts. Those who called themselves
Wild Girls and marched as sisters, rode
on white horses and wore star quilts.
Became firsts wearing names
like Ada Lovelace and Tu YouYou.
From The Unknown Daughter
The Monument Designer
The committee – they wanted
a woman architect.
My resume included one war memorial,
a city-center sculpture circle,
the House of Peace in Tennessee,
the Commons at Seneca Falls,
and more.
The committee laid out criteria
for feminist space. Circles
for womb shapes. Open room
for the chess queens and babies
in a variety of skin tones.
Benches, at least one secluded
for nursing a baby. Trees.
Gender neutral restrooms.
Access for people with disabilities.
Recognition of who inhabited this land
before settlers came. A labyrinth
for walking-it-off. Paths connecting
to the municipal rose garden.
Retreat space for the Watchwomen.
Safe parking for strollers.
The wind finds its way
to the top of this hill.
The casting of The Harp,
an approximation
of Edmona Lewis’s sculpture
for the 1939 World’s Fair asks us
to lift every voice, lift every voice
and sing when the first impulse
may be to whisper.
From The Unknown Daughter
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL