Who Is This Woman?

I am from Cinda and Fred who created the union

I am from my ancestors who brought me forth to enter the world of many dreams

I am from the joy of laughing clouds of energy that flow into the river of loving

I am from the world of loneliness as I seek to touch all that surrounds me

I am from women who had to bear burdens and children and those not meant to be

I am from another world that gave me life and many centuries of queens and kings

I am from nurturers of the world who seek the laughter of passionate tears

I am from souls who wander in the world to seek a place that feels like home

I am from the freeing spirit that must fly to seek the free flying winds

I am from words that must pour out and yet hands that prevent them from coming

I am from phrases thought but not placed on paper because the mind says not now

I am from you and me and us and we and all that is and will be

I am from the earth and the sky and wings of birds

I am from all that is and wants to be

I am from a place I called home and I will call home and a place I now call home

I am from the sunrise and the sunset and all that is in between

And only a moment in which I am from all that is and yet to be

And so it is that I am the woman who loves to be hugged and cared about

Who feels alone often and yet can walk among you

I am the woman who aches to be cared about but can’t ask

Who wants to reach out to the world but can’t take the step

I am the woman who wants to be there but not quite sure where

Who walks among you but doesn’t always feel there

I am the woman who feels gratitude for being and surviving

Who dances through life and yet needs to be rocked

I am the woman who wants to cry out loud but no tears will come

Who asks, “Who am I?”

I am the woman who walks with purpose but wants no goals

Who comforts but wants holding

I am the woman who knows how to give but can’t quite take

And so I am the woman that many know but don’t know who I am

I stand before you reaching out on paper

Because I am the Black woman who must hold up her world

But know that I am the woman whose strength covers her deepest pain

And so send me sprinkles of joy and laughter I can grasp

Each time I need my heart to sing

“It is well.  It is well with my soul!”

        © Hilda Ward, 2017

Birds on the wing
from Pixabay via Wikimedia Commons