Poetry written for ‘Many Votes, Many Voices’

Mother’s Washday Prayer Flags poem by Megan Baldrige

A bright sunrise peers over the mountains, winds kick up through the backyard.
Our practical foremothers marched for the vote in white dresses,

then returned home—
to hang
the laundry.

The suffragists
were jailed,
beaten and force-fed, but didn’t give up.

Like them,
we have work to do; like them,
we aspire.

Like prayer flags we inspire;
like the forest we respire.

Here, now,
working for justice, freedom, I help others,
choose love and bravery.

The winds of change are blowing.
Join me:
You too.

Hanging theWash by Caroline LeBlanc

Cloth billows. Ships sail. Adventure waits.

Images grow. Beauty and danger V ortex.

Should I change my mind? Be safe?
Or might I be free?

A brave, kind, helpful,“#Not You Too” me whoStands up for justice.

My truest self who always, Always chooses love.A bright sunrise peers over the mountains, winds kick up through the backyard.

Mother’s Washday Prayer Flags by Liza Wolff Francis

Even before you were born,
we wished so much for you.
We chanted prayers, made predictions about ways you would be stitched into the air, the same sun-soaked
air I hang your clothes in now.

One by one, I clip them to the line. They dangle under a clothespin grip, over this patchwork land,
a mosaic of mountains and hills,

all of the most difficult beauty. Battle words of your strength written into cloth, like

You are kind,

You are brave

shine through on fabric
as if a birth mark, a label
of your identity, words you use
to shape and define you,
so you will always see the importance of your voice, your body, your power, your existence. You are proof
of hope we hold for the world
and the battle for equality
still being waged.

Bluebird by Goyo Candela

Nature never made a Massachusetts Bluebird.

The adult female Eastern Bluebird is drab:

light-blue tail whitish throat

and a
faded light-orange breast.

She doeshave a soft pleasing whistle:chiti WEEW wewidoo

July 19, 1915:
the Massachusetts
Woman Suffrage Association pinned tin
Massachusetts
Bluebirds, across
the state
supporting
a woman’sright to vote.

That “Suffrage Blue Bird Day”100,000 Woman-made Bluebirds flew

each a point of reflected sunlight.

On that day 100,000 Eastern Bluebirds—1.1 ounces wingspan
13 inches—also spread their tin wings
over a state over a nation over the world.

Many Voices by Jesse Ehrenberg

(A poem written after seeing a show about the right to vote by the Mosaic Artists of New Mexico)

Escaping the mid-day sun, we find shelter
in the cool of a Gallery hidden inside

an old adobe building. And there we discover a surprise of art.
A room filled with works made from pieces of cut

and broken ceramic,
glass, mirrors and clay. Objects found,
and objects treasured, Sculptures carefully crafted to tell a story.

Mosaics with each tile carefully put in place to form a commentary, a testament,

a visual story ofwomen’s struggle
for equality, choice, empowerment.
Here is art as validation, benediction, and celebration.
Art that is both
a tribute to the past,
and hope for the future. A wish for a better world, a world where
dreams like these
can finally come true.