Tioga Arts Council’s Poetry Workshop participant honors women and mothers

Saturday, April 29, saw the conclusion of the Tioga Arts Council’s National Poetry Workshop Series celebrating the relevance that poetry has in our culture today. 

Participants crafted lyrical, moving written pieces addressing personal experiences of a wide variety. With both Memorial Day and Mother’s Day approaching, poems of deep personal connections to other human beings were composed and read aloud. 

Few things in life are more powerful than the relationships humans have with one another, our deepest memories and emotions link us inescapably with past interpersonal exchanges from the moment of birth until our last drawn breath. 

We are a species that is capable of challenging, exciting, frustrating, harming, motivating, cherishing, enraging, nurturing and destroying one another. 

We are complex, mercurial beings who have the potential to create both amazingly beautiful and fearful things. 

Rhianna Poe of the Town of Owego, N.Y. focused her energy on the complicated, exquisitely nostalgic relationship of mother and child. An intimate association that is possibly the most indelible bond we have in our lifetime, a connection that significantly informs our learned reaction to others and our overriding worldview. It is a link that is undeniable and ever changing. 

~

By Rhianna Poe

I carry inside of me pieces of my mother

For at one time I was a piece inside her

I carry pieces of my older sister, of my grandmothers before her and my great-grandmothers before them, because we all share pieces of each other

I carry pieces of every woman that has come before me and I already carry pieces of the daughters I may or may not have someday

I carry pieces of every woman, every where, for myself, I am woman

I carry pieces for the women who need a hand, the women who need a shoulder, the women who can no longer carry pieces, but may again one day

I hold pieces of every woman in the existence of this world, for because of them, I am woman.

~

By Rhianna Poe

I’m carrying a load of laundry up the stairs

‘hey mom, want to go get groceries?’

no, she says

I’m tired

She’s tired a lot

Napping

Not walking much

It’s only been a few weeks

But the change happened overnight

My hero

Met her kryptonite

The strong

Resilient 

Powerful

Woman

Is tired

And napping

Sleeping days away

The physical pain she feels

So apparent in her small

Calculated movements

Almost a shell of who she was

Who I looked up to

The woman who raised me

Carried me

For 9 months

Then 20 years more

Now I carry her burdens

And her laundry.

The Tioga Arts Council is located at 179 Front St. in Owego, N.Y. You may visit the council’s Facebook page to view upcoming events, stop in and visit to view a rotating monthly art instillation featuring area talent, or call the office for more information at 687-0785. 

The Tioga Arts Council would like to thank Dante Di Stefano for sharing his craft and knowledge of poetry writing with our community. The council is considering another writing workshop series in August. People interested in this type of program are encouraged to contact the council for more details.

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