Monthly Archives: March 2021

International Women’s Day: A Memory, A Promise

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The celebration of International Women’s Day is a forward-thinking, progressive recognition of the power and value of women in all spheres of society–domestic and public. This year, the theme is asking women and men to “Choose to Challenge” gender bias and stereotypes whenever and wherever they are encountered.

Springing from the feminists (also called suffragettes–who sought voting rights, better pay, and shorter working hours–sound familiar?) of the United States, who organized a National Women’s Day in 1908, the first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911, the same month that the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 140 women working in sub-standard and unsafe conditions. That legacy resonates with me. I work with textiles almost every day, and when I do I think am grateful that I do this out of choice. When I (rarely) buy new clothes, I try to understand the conditions under which they are made, to choose to support collectives like Novica and A Cultural Cloth that help artists (mostly women) who then build up their homes and home communities.

Now both a grassroots celebration in dozens of countries and a celebration under the aegis of the United Nations, International Women’s Day is, each March 8, an occasion for honoring the collective accomplishments of generations of women and a reminder that our vigilance, valor, and voices are needed to prevent erosion of modern gains and to extend protections at home and abroad, thinking and acting locally and globally.

Until I was in my late twenties, I was unaware of this annual celebration. Then, in early March of 1987, Tim and I took a trip to Italy. We drove to Florence from Nice on March 8, a cool and sunny Saturday. After checking into our hotel, the Helvetia & Bristol in the heart of the city, we set out on foot to explore. It was a memorable day soaking up history, arts, monuments, and vistas, tasting the incomparable Tuscan cuisine, and hearing Italian phrases and even songs float on the early spring air all around us. One highlight was, at first, a complete mystery. Men handed me small sprigs of mimosa. Everywhere we looked, women had were carrying these bright yellow blossoms or wearing them pinned on their lapels.

Why?

As a visible, tangible, and fragrant way to mark International Women’s Day. On March 8, 1987, it was those small gifts of ephemeral flowers that caught our attention. Not long after, however, Tim and I began to learn about the importance of women’s education, of how it catalyzes progress in communities, as well as in individual lives. Since then, we have been grateful to be able to support the education of two young girls (now women) whom we never met directly, one in Ethiopia, one in Tanzania, one through an organization headquartered in Minnesota, Operation Bookstrap Africa, and the other through the auspices of the Christian Children’s Fund. I know that you, too, have made these kinds of life-changing gifts, and I think today is a fitting day to be glad for the ways we have been able to help other people through our lives and our gifts.

Some years back, a friend gifted me with these fabulous socks.

Rosie the Riveter Socks

Fittingly, the last time I visited with my twenty-something daughter, whose passions for healing the planet and addressing food insecurity inspire Tim and me every day, she was the one wearing the socks.

Today, I renew my commitment to honor and support the contributions of other women and men in my own life, and especially to stand by my strong-minded, open-hearted daughter in all the choices she makes in work and life.

Thank you for reading this! LESLIE

April Poems: An Experimental Twist for 2021

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Pasque Flower, McKnight Prairie, 2020

Beginning in 2016, I have each year taken up the National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) Challenge. Each April for the past five years, I have celebrated National Poetry Month by writing a new poem each day and then posting it here on my personal blog.

And I have loved doing this! I have learned so much–about poetry, about my own process and capacity as a poet, and about the world around me. I have gained confidence as a poet, and have exploded, for myself, at least, the myth of “writer’s block” for the lie that it is. I have also made some new friends in far-flung corners of the world. I am grateful to poet Maureen Thorson for facilitating this international enterprise since 2003, and invite you to take another look at her website dedicated to NaPoWriMo. (Perhaps you, too, would like to take up the challenge? If so, please let me know so I can cheer you on!)

And yet…almost from the first day of my participation, I have wrestled with an inherent conundrum, that of generating interesting and sometimes inspired work that is published before it can be revised and (possibly) submitted to journal editors for possible publication, since, perforce, it is already published on the day it is first hatched. Since 2016, I have written 150 poems, none of which would have come into being without the NaPoWriMo Challenge, many of which I would like to share with journal editors, but which are ineligible.

What to do?

Over the past year, I have dreamed up an experimental alternative. In 2021, I will again write one new poem each day in April. I will not, however, publish it here. Instead, for those who would like to read the new poems, I will share the poem via email. On this blog, I will share the context for the poem, any backstory and photographs that make sense.

If you would like to receive the April poems, one each day as they are written, please send me an email letting me know that before the end of March. My email is winonapoet@gmail.com.

I am cautiously optimistic about this approach. To test it out in advance, last fall I arranged to send a new poem each day for one week and a day (eight days in a row) to a poetry-loving friend. (Thanks, Beth!) The experience worked for me (though I missed some aspects of publishing the poem more widely and graphically and sharing the backstory.) I did write eight new poems. To date, one of these has been accepted by a journal and will be published this month. (More on that in a future post!)

Sometime after April, I will consider how it has gone from my point of view and will share that here. I would be glad to know, too, from your point of view, should you wish to share, how it is to receive the April poems as they are circulated privately, a modern way of sharing in manuscript form.

Meanwhile, on April 1–no joke!–let the games begin!

Yours in the spirit of poetry,