‘A Circle of Women’ by Tracey Randle

Tracey Randle kindly shared with us this beautiful poem she was challenged to write. See which Karavan Press title is woven into the fabric of her ode to bookclubs, women and reading:

A circle of women

A circle of women facing each other might look like:
An embroidered cloth found in a forgotten museum store
Their names pulled in and out in cotton
As fingers and minds met each week
To sew something of themselves into the
collective cloth  

A circle of women facing each other might look like:
towers of books piled up like small mountains
the names of writers and poets pulled in and out
As fingers quietly turned pages
To read something of themselves in the
collective stories

A circle of women facing each other might look like:
all the hopes and dreams and fears they carry
of when breath becomes air
sewn into a cloth or told through another book’s story
As fingers and minds meet
Taking notes on grief
Daring greatly to speak something of their louding voices into the 
collective space

A circle of women facing each other might look like:
A starless sea of stories filled with 
empty champagne flutes and a stack of china plates smeared with crumbs
washing up on a hibiscus coast
A garden light flashing on and off in the night
As the oak leaves and nighttime birds catch their laughter
Recognising that on earth we are briefly gorgeous

A circle of women facing each other might look like:
All the embroidered cloths our grandmothers have ever made
All the towers of books women have discussed together
while thinking up a hurricane
A line of tears caught in thread
A seam of hope woven in a tapestry
A string of words that prevents the great alone 
We are so much more than girl, women, other
Where the pull of the stars shows us 
The wonder of acceptance

To read more about Tracey click here: Cape Herstorian

Thank you, Tracey, for reading and sharing ‘A circle of women’ with us.