Let's get this one thing straight, ere we begin: I never threw a piss-pot on his head. No other suitor suited me; my kin Would have me married off or see me dead. But Socrates, his mind still sharp, saw grit: In me, and he prefered to spend his days With one whose fiery tongue could match his wit And my outspokenness left him unfazed. Wife, daughter, nurse - the outside world be damned Companion, mentor, husband, man: He was My world, and I was his. Our lives are dimmed In history's pages; mine, made small because The feminine, possessed of intellect Is feared, though man's deemed worthy of respect.
Today’s Poet
Halima Xudoyberdiyeva
– an Uzbek poet whose themes at different times of her career have dealt with Uzbek nationhood and history, liberation movements, and feminism. She was awarded the title People’s Poet of Uzbekistan. Read more here.
Sacred Woman – Happy 60th birthday, Halima!: johanna_hypatia — LiveJournal
April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.
This month, my goal is to:
- Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
- Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.
I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.
Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)
Nice one. The pervasive attempts to erase womens’ contributions–nay, their very existence–rankles me. I should not have to be surprised to learn that certain world-changing accomplishments were the results of women.
Cheers,
Mitch
When we were in London, we took a river cruise-tour on the Thames. There’s a bridge there – the Waterloo Bridge – that was almost entirely built by women, and as our guides said, the only one finished on time and within budget.
But history tried to erase that, too. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/women-waterloo-bridge
Reading about Xanthippe and it’s interesting to see most of the anecdotes seemed to be how mean and shrewd she was with Socrates, leaving his friends to question why he put up with it. But I’m guessing they probably loved each other, or at least she probably challenged him more than anyone else. He probably wasn’t interested in someone who was merely “pleasant” but actually countered him and was willing to put him in his place.
I enjoyed reading this. “He was / My world, and I was his. Our lives are dimmed / In history’s pages; mine, made small”. I especially liked these lines. It’s possible they saw each other as equals when most people didn’t.
In everything I read, she was portrayed as a loving, devoted wife and mother and he supposedly said that her “spirit” was the main reason he married her. Also, she was probably 40 years his junior, and her family’s social standing higher than his.
To reach heights in intellectual discourse, one needs a foil. Most of Socrates work was training juniors; having an equal at home would have been required to keep him sharp.
By most accounts, he was smart enough to know that, which is why he chose her for his wife. She was his junior in years, but spirited and presumably outspoken.
An overdue highlight of this splendid woman years ahead of her time. It couldnât have been easy but she made it possible. And the people who mattered most to her saw her worth. How beautiful. So glad to have been introduced this way. Thanks Holly. Splendid. Spectacular post and image. Thanks a bunch.
Thank you, Selma!
Beautiful poem, although sadly true.
Alphabet of Alphabets: Xylographer MarX