PAEAN TO ANCESTRAL WOMEN
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
All hail to you, mothers of eld,
Hail to your sons and your daughters.
All of them breathe because of you
They owe their strength to your power.
You are the ones who protected their world;
You built the Europe of yore.
Though conquerors claimed it and many defamed it,
Your wisdom and leadership soared.
You have borne the families here now;
You fled with forbearers and hid them.
You fought to the end, defended the fort,
All while you nourished and led them.
Too long you’ve stayed buried down deep,
Away from the knowing eye,
Kept from your place up here in the sun -
Where lineage live now and thrive.
Now is your time, o’ prescient ones;
Now is the time to acknowledge.
Let history herald you and your kin -
All hail to you and your knowledge.
THE NATURE OF FAMILY
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
Who gains from defaming women?
Not fathers or sons, certainly.
But what about the faux fathers
Who pretend to be family?
How can you call someone “father”
Who has nothing to do with your birth?
What happened to god-wives, god-women?
Of them there’s surely a dearth!
The mother bears the children.
And nurtures them too, it is clear.
Why then vilify women?
To make humans disappear?
These deviations from family
Use words without making sense;
Take inheritance from children -
Give status with filial pretense.
THE WISDOM OF WORKING WOMEN
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
The case for working with women
Is easy to make, it would seem
Amid all the stalking, disparaging talking
Their value’s not bad – it’s supreme!
White guys have pulled rank far too long
Now it’s back to the past, let’s go -
No need to depend on a cadre of men
As white as the pure driven snow
Although the founding fathers
Didn’t see their way clear to do it,
It’s high time for females to take their place
In their country in time to renew it.
IN BALANCE
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
Family turns unfamiliar
When severed by language and nation;
In just one short generation
The past can disappear.
How to recover from damage
Inflicted for 2000 years?
Honor parents as partners,
And children as family gems.
Guard earth’s treasures and waters;
Place reason above brutal ways.
Reject dictators, supremacists;
Restore freedom’s reign in all ways.
THE HIGH PRIZE OF FREEDOM
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
Is it ever okay to enslave?
Natural or national,
Which law is rational
In matters of cradle to grave?
How much does it mean to be free?
Would it be just as good
On a walk in the wood
If hunter the hunted should be?
LIFTING HISTORY’S CURTAIN
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
Long lost Celts are we -
Hidden for all to see,
Our traces erased,
Our hamlets displaced,
Our culture claimed by our captors.
We’re Burgundians, Galls and Basques.
Veneti, Franks and Etruscans;
Great family trees,
Long under siege -
Striving to learn and be free.
Stewards of the lands,
Rivers, trees and glens -
Our refuge, our home,
Though wide we may roam,
Europe’s our primeval realm.
CELTIC BY DESIGN
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
The Celts were the builders of Europe,
Memorialized by their craft;
Distinguished by productivity
That overlords claimed as their own.
Hill forts, castles, moats
Iron forges and spirals,
Circles of trees, great gathering halls,
Wine cellars, fields and pavilions.
Coriander, bright colored fabrics,
Intricate patterns, nature-based,
Plants, vines, leaves and flowers,
Carved metal, stone, wood, penned on paper.
Courtyards, scriptoria, striped arches,
Round banquet tables and chairs,
Gold, iron, salt and walled villages,
Festivals, feasting and fairs.
Leaded glass, vaulted ceilings,
Conical slate-roofed spiked towers.
Clever reliefs, slender columns
Hint of Celts, both then and now.
THE TIME-HONORED MEANING OF FAMILY
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
One lone father
does not a family make
Even if you add a son,
You need much more than just the one -
You need another parent.
Look back to find the future.
And what do you see there?
Mom and Dad with kids around
Where joyous times and life abound
All quite naturally.
NO KINGDOM
FOR ME!
By Jacqueline Widmar Stewart
I don’t want to live in a kingdom
That’s ruled by men–only men;
I don’t want to be part of a system
Where witches are hunted again.
I don’t want to be told not to think for myself
Or be bound by what all male priests say;
I don’t want a world where women are told
“Stay home” “Don’t get in the way.”
I don’t want to mouth superstitions
That praise god for killing his son;
I don’t want to be in a chorus
Extolling the virtues of one.
The world that I want welcomes females
And people from all ‘round the globe;
Together we make the world better
Why exclude nature’s vast golden node?
Kingdom come? No, kingdom gone.
That’s the best it can be
Without all the lies and corruption
Let all the bells toll–let’s be free!
