Thoughts That Follow Solstice

Solstice has had me thinking about the ancient past. The contrast between how so much remains the same while life itself is so different. The solstice and other events of nature have always been here as long as there has been life on earth. Yet the lives we humans live today bears very little resemblence to those of our most distant ancestors. Below is a poem I wrote a few years ago after reading an article about the lives of various groups of ancient women.

Womanhouse

(Our female ancestors first built
Themselves and their families
Round shaped shelters.
-Faith Wilding-)

Dwellings, round and earthen,
sheltering wombs
spun of reeds and grass,

houses of thread and time
built by ancient mothers as
sacred spaces. . .
protective environments.

Single rooms,
life supporting chambers,
vaginal and warm,
somewhere between inner and outer,
between public and private.

A woman space,
wisely woven from love and duty,
encircling the rituals of daily life.

© 1998 Betty Becquart Sanders