roots

from In the Sanctuary of Women:

...I am from women less quiet,

women of the shout and the stomp,

testifying wherever they could make

their voices heard.

I am from Miriam and Mary and Magdalena

and from women unknown and unnamed,

women who carried their prayers

not in books

but in their blood

and in their bones;

women who passed down the sacred stories

from body to body.

I am from them,

listening to their voices,

aching to hear,

to tell, to cry out,

to make a way for those

yet to come.

- a portion of Where I'm From, Jan Richardson