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a year ago123 - I am Woman
@dedani.dlodlo presents her poem - I am Woman.
Dedani is a psychologist and poet who lives in London, England. Originally from Zimbabwe and having spent time in the US, Dedani works with young people at risk of serious youth violence and specialises in trauma. She helped co-found @the_ampersandcollective, a faith based art ministry bringing the community together through art.
#poetry #iamwoman #dedanidlodlo #streamsstudio
I am
Woman
And in the tradition of some religious men
I am more villain than victim
Though the weaker sex
I am still the greater sinner
I am no longer
The last of creation’s divine epiphanies woman
Or the one man once sang over
Singing bone of my very bone
Flesh of my own flesh woman
I am only
Fashioned from the rib of a man woman
The woman that was
Given and then blamed
She is me
Always and inexplicably ashamed
I am she
Deceived into conceiving sin woman
I have desires and needs
Of which I’ve been told I needn’t speak
Because after all God never spoke to me
Woman
Not directly
And not of anything
Other than curses and seeds
So though I am wild woman
Constantly coming undone
And though on most days
I runneth over
With tears and holy hymns
That I can only hum
I try hard not to be
That woman
Stuck on paper
Too open
And so easily read
Like a well known poem
About a brittle woman
Breaking herself apart
To scatter herself and her unloved heart
All over the halfway willingness of a man woman
I try hard not to be
That wild horse woman
Both terrifying and strange
Running alone in flames
Along tight ropes and fine lines
Between two poles
Not enough and too much
Trying to find peace of mind
Somewhere in the middle
Where the thunder roars
While the sun still kisses
After the world ends
Before the dawn breaks again
But there
Deep in the dialectical
Where few go
Where being good and woman
Feels more like a game of Marco Polo
The knowledge of who I can be
Always just beyond my reach
Something I can only navigate
By what their misogyny tells me
But they are the blind ones
Afraid to see that there might be
Something divine in femininity
(continued in the comments…)