“No Baloney Sandwiches” – a poem … and Publisher Vik Bennet at Wild Women Press announces a new opportunity for women to connect and to showcase their work

“When a woman tells the truth, she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.” Adrienne Rich

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This is dedicated to all those women . . .
Those who are blatantly themselves
You know the ones I mean –
Some, when seedlings, had folks or teachers
or maybe even married men
who jabbed a finger yelling: You! You! You!
accusing them of being quintessentially themselves
. . . as though that was wrong.

They are the YOUs who come from multi-colored places
with varied dreams and
hearts woven of wonderlush
They are the womanish ~
sometimes childlike,
sometimes adultish.

They run from the gray streets to the green forest.

They take to long-lost roads and never-found pathways
with their song in a backpack and
a brown-bag lunch of no-baloney sandwiches.
When they elder they arrive back at the beginning
knowing who are they are

. . . and why.

© 2016, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

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In an email yesterday award-winning poet, publisher, activist and mom,Victoria Bennet, founder of Wild Women community and Wild Woman Press asked me to tell the women here about a new initiative: Wild Women Web … Spining Our Stories Together:

“We love our Wild Women conversations so much that we have decided to make a space [on our site] for all those wonderful ideas, passions, inpirations and insights to be shared. Together, we want to create a Wild Woman Web and we want to bring you into the circle!

“To start this off, we will be posting one blog a month, from a member of Wild Women or Wild Guest. There isn’t a set theme — think of it rather as a conversation around the cauldron, a gathering space for women to share stories, songs, howls, and hopes — with each blog being another thread in the web.

“If you would like to be part of the Wild Woman Web, please give us a howl.” Victoria Bennet

Connect with Wild Women Web HERE.

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RELATED:

• Wild Women in Art, Poetry and Community featuring Gretchen Del Rio’s Art and Victoria Bennet’s “The Howl or How Wild Women Press Came to Be”, Victoria Bennet on The Poet by Day
• “#MeToo: rallying against sexual assult and harassment, a women’s poetry anthology” edited by Deborah Alma; “Persephone’s Daughters,” empower readers and writers who’ve experienced gendered abuse, Deborah Alma and Persephone’s Daughters on The Poet by Day
• International Women’s Day … and “ain’t I a woman …” on The Poet by Day

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ABOUT

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Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. Currently I run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded.  I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers.

My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman.