March 8, 2020
International Women’s Day
A PLACE
by Edwina Gateley
I dream a place
for women
to come apart
to meet themselves
in a safe and nurturing space.
A place for women
who have never been alone,
or looked upon their deep feminine selves,
can be free to sink
into the wombs of
their grandmothers,
their mothers,
themselves
I dream of a place
where all the cycles of
a woman’s life
will be acknowledged
and celebrated
in tune with nature and
the rhythms of the earth
I would like a place
where the weary,
the battered and the raped
will find healing
in herbs and touch and dance
I dream a place
where women will sing and chant
beneath the full moon
and dance around
the dying embers,
a place
where the feminine will
be nurtured
and born again
into our world
Ah, I dream a place
for virgin, mother and crone
to rise again
in fullness
with the moon.
Edwina Gately, a founding board member of Mary’s Pence, is a poet, theologian, artist, writer, and lay minister.
The image of the women joining hands and circling the Earth is a print of an original piece by Blanca Villaseñor Guevara — a Mexican artist who lives in Chiapas and is the cousin of ESPERA Team Lead Gilda Larios.
Mary’s Pence thanks both of these incredibly gifted women for sharing their inspirational work with us.