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| Image from Mother Wove the Morning |
Sixteen Women
(Or, "An Ode to 'Mother Wove the Morning'")
If you listen,
you can
hear sixteen
women
singing
through her
and
sixty billion
humming along.
-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Small All White in the Forest)
"I am no barrier to its sun; the light and I are as one!"
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My Poetic Notes:
The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: After I first saw Carol Lynn Pearson's one-woman play "Mother Wove the Morning" (in Salt Lake City, Utah), I was so moved by her play about "sixteen women throughout history in search of the female face of God" that I wrote this poem!
And then went to see her play, for a second time, in order to give Carol Lynn the poem. So, after her performance—when she was talking to the audience, one-by-one, in order to get feedback about her play—I gave her the poem handwritten in calligraphy with my contact information on the back of the poem...
...Later on, she contacted me by phone and asked me permission to use my poem as a "thank-you gift" for the many volunteers who had helped Carol Lynn to put on her play! Thus, she asked me to make several copies of the poem for her volunteers; so, I volunteered to make a copy of the poem for each one of her volunteers handwritten in calligraphy.
Also, one of Carol Lynn's volunteers suggested a better wording for the last part of the poem, which I have utilized ever since!
You see, I originally wrote "...and sixteen billion humming along," so that the number of women 'singing along' with Carol Lynn's characters were the same number as the "sixteen women throughout history in search of the female face of God" in her play; but the volunteer pointed out that number of women 'singing along' with Carol Lynn was too few! So, she suggested that I use "sixty billion," instead...
...And I have "Utah-lized" (ha, ha) that idea ever since!
And this poem was also published on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer."
This poem was written in Salt Lake City, Utah.
-Paulee
https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com
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"Mother Wove the Morning" from Carol Lynn Pearson:
Much of my life has been devoted to the search for the feminine divine, a search that culminated in writing Mother Wove the Morning, a one-woman play in which I perform sixteen women throughout history in search of the female face of God.
In 1989 I rented our local community theater in Walnut Creek for two weekends, sent out press releases, sold tickets, and opened the play, believing at least my friends would show up. They did. And lots of other people. The event sold out and I extended again and again. Subsequently I played across the country and abroad, ultimately doing over 300 performances, one on Crete for the International Partnership Conference, invited by Margarita Papandreo, first lady of Greece, and author Riane Eisler. I learned that the hunger in my own heart for the Mother was matched by the hunger in the hearts of thousands of other women and men.
https://carollynnpearson.com/store/mother-wove-the-morning-book-dvd
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This "Small All White in the Forest" Post No. 031 was edited on May 3rd, 2024.
"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]
