A strong woman is a woman who is straining.
A strong woman is a woman standing
on tiptoe and lifting a barbell
while trying to sing Boris Godunov.
A strong woman is a woman at work
cleaning out the cesspool of the ages,
and while she shoves, she talks about
how she doesn�t mind crying, it opens
the ducts of the eyes, and throwing up
develops the stomach muscles, and
she goes on shoveling with tears
in her nose.
A strong woman is a woman in whose head
a voice is repeating, I told you so,
ugly, bad girl, bitch, nag, shrill, witch,
why aren�t you feminine, why aren�t
you soft, why aren�t you quiet, why
aren�t you dead?
A strong woman is a woman determined
to do something others are determined
not to be done. She is pushing up on the bottom
of a lead coffin lid. She is trying to raise
a manhole cover with her head, she is trying
to butt her way through a steel wall.
Her head hurts. People waiting for the hole
to be made say, hurry, you�re so strong.
A strong woman is a woman bleeding
inside. A strong woman is a woman making
herself strong every morning while her teeth
loosen and her back throbs. Every baby,
a tooth, midwives use to say, and now
every battle a scar. A strong woman
is a mass of scar tissue that aches
when it rains and wounds that bleed
when you bump them and memories that get up
in the night and pace in boots to and fro.
A strong woman is a woman who craves love
like oxygen or she turns blue choking.
A strong woman is a woman who loves
strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly
terrifies and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong
in words, in action, in connection, in feeling;
She is not strong as stone, but as a wolf
suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she
enacts it as the wind fills a sail.
What comforts her is others loving
her equally for the strength and for the weakness
from which it issues, lightning from a cloud.
Lightening stuns. In rain, the clouds disperse.
Only water of connection remains,
flowing through us. Strong is what we make
each other. Until we are all strong together,
a strong woman is a woman strongly afraid.
Author Unknown
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I�m not cute or built to suit a models� fashion size
But when I start to tell them
They think I�m telling lies.
I say
It�s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips
The stride of my steps
The curl of my lips.
I�m a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That�s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please
And to a man
The fellows stand or
Fall down to their knees
Then they swarm around me
A hive of honey bees.
I say
It�s the fire in my eyes
And the flash of my teeth
The swing of my waist
And the joy in my feet.
I�m a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That�s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me
They try so much
But they can�t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can�t see.
I say
It�s in the arch of my back
The sun of my smile
The ride of my breasts
The grace of my style.
I�m a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That�s me.
Now you understand
Just why my heads not bowed
I don�t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say
It�s in the click of my heels
The bend of my hair
The palm of my hand
The need for my care.
�Cause I�m a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That�s me.
Maya Angelou
After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
Holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn�t mean possession
And company doesn�t mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren�t contracts
And presents aren�t promises and you begin to accept
Your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of an adult not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build your roads today
Because tomorrow�s ground is far too uncertain for plans
And futures have ways of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
That you really are strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn
And with every good-bye you learn�
Veronica A. Shoffstall
Farewell, false Friend! our scenes of kindness close!
To cordial looks, to sunny smiles farewell!
To sweet consolings, that can grief expel,
And every joy soft sympathy bestows!
For alter'd looks, where truth no longer glows,
Thou hast prepared my heart; and it was well
To bid thy pen th' unlook'd for story tell,
Falsehood avow'd, that shame, nor sorrow knows.
O! when we meet, (to meet we're destin'd, try
To avoid it as thou may'st) on either brow,
Nor in the stealing consciousness of eye,
Be seen the slightest trace of what, or how
We once were to each other; nor one sigh
Flatter with weak regret a broken vow!
Anna Seward