Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Lady Liberty

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” 

― Audre Lorde

“Lady Liberty”  by Theodore Bonev (2007)
at the Agrement roundabout, St. Maartin

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"As an allegory of Liberty, Woman symbolizes a passion for freedom inherent to all human beings, while at the same time exposing the limits of liberty as an abstract ideal. What does liberty mean for women in a male-dominated world?                                                     ~ Barbera Taylor,   Liberty is a Woman   (Read the rest of the essay LIBERTY IS A WOMAN! here) 

Liberty Enlightening the World 
 Statue of Liberty

donated to the US by France (1886)

 BigMacSC99

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Midweek Motif ~ Lady Liberty

Liberty is often represented allegorically as a woman.  Given the place of women in the world, this is ironic.  Or is it wishful thinking?   In my country, the liberty I have comes as part of white privilege, but even then it is an exception rather than the rule.  Or have we "come a long way, baby"?*

(*This quote is from the 1988 advertisement for Virginia Slims cigarettes below.)

Your Challenge:  Speak to Lady Liberty, or let Her speak in your new poem.  Is Ms. Liberty someone you know?

source

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The Old Stoic

Emily Brontë, 1818 - 1848

Riches I hold in light esteem,

   And Love I laugh to scorn;

And lust of fame was but a dream,

   That vanished with the morn:

And if I pray, the only prayer

   That moves my lips for me

Is, “Leave the heart that now I bear,

   And give me liberty!”

Yes, as my swift days near their goal:

   ’Tis all that I implore;

In life and death a chainless soul,

   With courage to endure.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix (1829)

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The New Colossus  

by Emma Lazarus 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

By Jessica Toby Lustig (2017)

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excerpt from lady liberty

BY TATO LAVIERA

. . . . 

if you touch me, touch ALL of my people

who need attention and societal repair,

give the tired and the poor

the same attention, AMERICA,

touch us ALL with liberty,

touch us ALL with liberty.

hunger abounds, our soil is plentiful,

our technology advanced enough

to feed the world,

to feed humanity's hunger . . .

but let's celebrate not our wealth,

not our sophisticated defense,

not our scientific advancements,

not our intellectual adventures.

let us concentrate on our weaknesses,

on our societal needs,

for we will never be free

if indeed freedom is subjugated

to trampling upon people's needs.

this is a warning,

my beloved america.

. . . .

(Read the rest HERE,)

FYI:  USA Immigration and the Statue of Liberty "Debate"

August 2, 2017

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Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—

                (Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ City )

Classic Poetry ~ "Warning and Reply" by Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë, 1818-1848

A few weeks back we featured Charlotte Brontë here in Classic Poetry, and referenced her sisters Anne and Emily. As you may remember, all three women achieved impressive literary heights before they died in their thirties. And yes... poor pun was intended, because Emily, an oft-published poet called both independent and opinionated, is most remembered for her novel Wuthering Heights. Having attended to five members of her immediate family through illness and death, Emily often wrote of these topics. Warning and Reply is one such dedicated piece.

Warning and Reply

In the earth--the earth--thou shalt be laid,

A grey stone standing over thee;

Black mould beneath thee spread,

And black mould to cover thee.

"Well--there is rest there,

So fast come thy prophecy;

The time when my sunny hair

Shall with grass roots entwined be."

But cold--cold is that resting-place,

Shut out from joy and liberty,

And all who loved thy living face

Will shrink from it shudderingly,

"Not so. HERE the world is chill,

And sworn friends fall from me:

But THERE--they will own me still,

And prize my memory."

Farewell, then, all that love,

All that deep sympathy:

Sleep on: Heaven laughs above,

Earth never misses thee.

Turf-sod and tombstone drear

Part human company;

One heart breaks only--here,

But that heart was worthy thee!