Beach your beauty
on the back of storms
and bind your spells,
pulsating northern lights.
You offer songs to the night
but are drawn by siren stars.
Lured off course without navigation,
you fight waves of mass ejection
and collide with the shore,
exposed to the cosmos:
foamy flukes glint in starlight,
your songs echo in the night.
Kim M. Russell, 2017
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Wordy Thursday with Wild Woman ~ The Silence Breakers
Sherry says that there was a lot to be discouraged about in 2017, but one positive is the rise of the ‘Me, too’ movement, revealing how many women have experienced some form of sexual abuse, harassment or assault. Millions of women are coming into the light of day and speaking out.
Sherry wants us to take a moment to howl in a poem about any aspect of women’s lives, our voices, our stories, our silencing, and/or our speaking out – not forgetting the viewpoints of our male poets.
writing in north norfolk 
I so completely love hearing the sea witch’s song. Love the illustration too, and her songs echoing in the night. Thanks for linking, Kim.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Sherry, for your kind comments and the great prompt.
LikeLike
This is just so beautifully eloquent! I love how you have presented the archetypal female as siren, doomed to be blamed for luring men, leading them astray. There are many societies that even today curse women for the fact that men cannot control themselves, force them to cover up, stay inside and bind them in servitude… I hate to generalize but a huge proportion of women do not live free.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Kerry. It saddens me to think of the women who are trapped by men in relationships, forced marriages, jobs, enslavement – and even more so when I read about it happening in what are supposed to be civilised countries. Men do blame women, not just for leading them astray but for things over which women have no control. – men’s behaviour.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful poem and I agree with all the comments above.
(I’ve been writing/editing two reference books on rape this past year.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Merril. I have had personal experience of harassment, stalking and assault, Have your books been published yet?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think most women have experienced harassment at some point, but I’m so sorry you’ve experienced more! I’m going through the copyedited manuscript of one book now. One book should be out in May; the other in August. I may be doing one on sexual harassment next, but I’m not certain yet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such a poignant HOWL! Spell-binding!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Susan!
LikeLike
This works so well… the sirens that actually makes a lot of sense pulling down the men… (but of course they never listened… now they have to)
LikeLike
Brava.. 🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀
LikeLike
Powerful stuff Kim.
LikeLike
This is an amazing poem Kim. so very powerful.
LikeLike
“and collide with the shore,
exposed to the cosmos”
The collision and exposure are inevitable, as broken silences continue to birt voice
Intriguing poem Kim
Much💖 love
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Gillena. Much love to you, too, and I hope you’ve been having a great weekend. We’re expecting snow today – it is so cold here.
LikeLike