Credit: eku.edu
Any story that displaces another will replicate the problem of marginalizing other, different tales. My hope is that my story can be placed alongside multiple voices from multiple points of view. I am convinced that diversity, not dominance, provides the richest, and ultimately the most reliable resource for us all.- Kathy Weingarten, The Mother’s Voice
Credit: girl-heroes.com
Stories are written and told by and for people who have been broken, but who have risen up, or will rise if attention is paid to them. Those people are you and us. Stories and truth are splints for the soul, and that makes today a sacred gathering.
– Anne Lamott, in Grace Eventually
Ancient olive tree at Sant Antimo monastery
The ancient olive rises
slow on its thickened base
rooting into soil of centuries
of virgin flavors
paired with vineyards
and traditional terracotta
filings of tile and statue, stone soil
signifying senses utterly unique.
No way to transplant or grow
beyond this circle of towns
where Etruscan lives left their legacy
in shards of living, cultured
long before we knew the names
of those who defended their right
to peace on lush land
against neighbor towns who tried
and failed to grow the layered depth
of flavor, life, that flourishes
unbound from these Orcian hills
under the Tuscan sun.
swb
