There have always been women who
remember the old ways.
Women who hold within them
the memory of a time
in the beginning
when Woman was honored.

Women who refuse
to worship the gods,
to learn the language,
to take the names
of the Fathers.

Women who refuse to twist
their female bodies into shape
and definitions,
who transcend limitations.
Women who love their bodies.

Women who refuse to please others
by becoming smaller than they are.
Women who take space
with their thoughts and feelings,
their needs and desires,
their anger and their dreams.

Strong women from every age
wild women, spinster women
wise women, rebellious women
women who love women
midwives, witches
healers, activists.

Eve, the Mother of All Living:
Take and eat of the good fruit of life. Take a big bite!

Sappho:
She Who Gives Birth Has Power over Life and Death

Mary Wollstonecraft:
Break the Silken Fetters

Sojourner Truth:
Ain't I a Woman!

Margaret Sanger:
Speak and Act in Defiance of Convention

Elizabeth Cady Stanton:
Whatever the Bible may be made to do in Hebrew and Greek
in plain English it does not exalt and dignify women.

Karen Horney:
Womb Envy is More Like It

Audre Lorde:
The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House

Women who step up
and commit the forbidden act.
Biting into patriarchy,
spitting it out and beginning again,
from the very beginning
when women
loved their bodies
served the Goddess
authored their lives.
Refusing to surrender
except to life as it pulsates through them.

Women reminding us
there is nothing wrong
there never has been anything wrong
there never will be anything wrong
with Woman.
Stop asking the question!