Ferocious Women
who never bring you coffee
dream in poetry

warm art in their core
climb like smoke from a fire
leave a wild song

stir alive
wizards and wolves
in a rush of green and gold and gray

weather awful times
shake-awake the world to good
wear their stories with a smile

eat masks, drip truth,
radical truth,
(I do not exaggerate)

find joy in life
moments to intertwine
connect, concentrate

make a ferocious dinner
drink the wind in exaltation
save softness for dessert

Ferocious Women
storm in words that endure,
fearless

Copyright 2017 Brenda Davis Harsham

Notes: This poem was written in homage to the January 21, 2017 Women’s March, which took place in 600 cities and was an historic outpouring of world-wide support for women’s justice and rights. I wrote a poem about the march called America the Beautiful. I also wrote this poem, inspired by and utilizing the following lines, collected by Donna Smith, contributed by the following Poetry Friday regulars (including me):

• Buffy S: “ferocious women who never bring you coffee” – refrigerator magnetic poetry
• Donna S (instigator extraordinaire): “always leave a wild song” – refrigerator magnetic poetry
• Linda B: “dreaming women do art in poetry” – from her pile of poetry blocks
• Buffy S: “where wizards and wolves rush by in a blur of green and gold and gray” – patched together from Kate Dicamillo’s Where Are You Going Baby Lincoln
• Kay: “ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones” from Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five
• Linda M: “waking the world to a new day“
• Margaret S: “steam that climbs like smoke from a fire“ 
• Carol V: “fearless women reach out, connect, and find joy in life’s intertwined moments” – Connecting to the word “fearless” that April had used last week.
• Tabatha Y: “little chest to put the Alive in” – Emily Dickinson
• Joy: “wear loose clothing and a smile” – from a thought and some connections
• Jan GA:  “I feel like there should be more stories out there for girls, and I try to tell them” – a quote from Hope Larson from the book COMICS CONFIDENTIAL.
• Mary Lee H: “ferocious women do not exaggerate” – from Mary Oliver’s UPSTREAM on page 109, “I do not exaggerate.”
• Brenda H: “make a ferocious dinner that eats masks, drips truth and saves softness for dessert“
• Keri L: “radical at their core” from her husband’s magazine, “Guns & Ammo”
• Kiesha S: “ferocious women would rather drink the wind” – a line from Mary Oliver’s (Why I Wake Early) titled “The Arrowhead”
• Diane M: “Out of endurance, exaltation” – a line from the poem “Monadnock” by Robert Francis.


Thanks to Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink for hosting Poetry Friday this week! I look forward to reading more poetry, some of it Ferocious, at the link up. Have a magical weekend!

If you want to take up Donna’s Poetpourri Challenge to make a poem from those lines, you can check out these links: it starts here and has guidelines here. The bloghop linkup is at Mainly Write.