Tuesday, January 5, 2010

When Mothers Get Together (Poem)

When Mothers Get Together

We forget
when we laugh.

Laughing,
we fear nothing.

Fearing nothing,
we take to the streets.

In the streets,
we join hands.

With joined hands,
we become one.

As one,
we have power.

Power takes
power

To hold
fear in check.

Braced against fear,
we hope.

We hope,
so we do not weep.

Copyright © 2010 Maureen E. Doallas. All Rights Reserved.
____________________

I wrote "When Mothers Get Together" for Carry On Tuesday prompt #33, which required only that we use all or some part of the following quote, attributed to poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in poem or prose: "We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear".

Biographical and other information about Ella Wheeler Wilcox is here. A collection of hundreds of Wilcox poems is here.

11 comments:

Glynn said...

I read this, and I think of the Mothers of the Cinco de Mayo, who walked togther in testimony against the military regime in Argentina.

Louise Gallagher said...

Maureen, I read "When Mothers Get Together" and felt the power of our voices rising together to Stop. Abuse. Violence. Prostitution. Child pornography. and a host of social ills.

As you so beautifully say it:

As one,
we have power.

Power takes
power

You are a true WoW!!!!

Jessie said...

all of your words are strong. i hear staccato notes, worn by mothers everywhere --

warm smiles,

Anonymous said...

when mothers
get together
watch out!

Kayce aka lucy said...

your words have touched me deeply and i think of a group of mothers i bonded with several years ago as our children were struggling (and thereby so were we.) with your permission, i would like to pass this along to them as a reminder of our bonds (giving you FULL credit, of course!)

Megan Willome said...

I love your poem, and I wish this were true. But I tend to see moms backbiting and trying to one-up each other.

katdish said...

Power takes power to hold fear in check.

Darn skippy, Maureen. Great poem.

L.L. Barkat said...

Mmmmm.

Anonymous said...

Love this! I am going to share this with my MOPS group!

-Alisa Hope

Monica Sharman said...

WOW.

And laughter does that, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Choice phrasing you've used that has touched me deeply. Thank you for sharing and great use of the prompt.

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