Tell me, what is it you plan to dowith your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver, “The Summer Day” What did I do, the famous poet asks? Well, I survived, first of all, because that’s first. Then, I… Read More ›
Marie Cartier
Suffrage is Unfinished Business—On The 101 Anniversary of the 19th Amendment by Marie Cartier
Dear FAR readers – please find photos from a celebration of the 101 anniversary of women’s suffrage, the 19th Amendment, that I attended August 26, 2021. That day marks the end of the 100th year of women having the right… Read More ›
Loving Venus, a poem by Marie Cartier
Dedicated to Carol Christ, 1945-2021, who taught so many of us how to love the Goddess She is called “Nude Woman” and currently livesin her natural museum house in Vienna.Nude woman. She is art, but she is not in an… Read More ›
Blue Is My Favorite Color by Marie Cartier
You can’t have the ocean without blue. I walk at night, that’s the time of year the grunion run, a silver school teaching us that it’s work to populate –the small shimmer of a female screwing herself into the sand…. Read More ›
How I Learned to Make Maps by Marie Cartier
1. I went into the unknown world with glasses that made everything so clear I could move through this world into the next. Before I got my glasses…I didn’t see the way I could step to the edge, put out… Read More ›
How I Learned to Grow Wings by Marie Cartier
April 2021, Poem Visibility is this body opening against itself over and over… an existence moving through fibers was the one thing I had. When was the time…breathe in? Breathe out. My existence to myself was the most political act…. Read More ›
I Heard my Own Siren Song, and Followed It (a poem) by Marie Cartier
They didn’t know I was a mermaid. That I had a siren song. That I could lure, and I could kill. And that I would eventually because – I was a mermaid. When my father tried… Read More ›
How I Learned to Love Snakes (a poem) by Marie Cartier
Can I recall a time when my resilience surprised me? My mother always said, “If you feel bad, go out into the garden and eat worms.” Sigh. We didn’t have a garden. My resilience. My head hits the counter, as… Read More ›
This Story, I Am This Story by Marie Cartier
1. The papaya, the lemon, the squash. The everything going bad—not yet. I can pickle anything I can save—still. And I am never still. Still…at sixty-four here I am. Rise. This is age—still. 2. I have a passport to somewhere… Read More ›
In These United States: Georgia is on My Mind by Marie Cartier
Georgia on my mind, so goes the song, and right now the road leads back to you, Georgia. The run-off election which could make two senators blue and give control of the Senate to the Democrats, remove a Republican as… Read More ›
Photo Essay: November 7, 2020, Long Beach, CA by Marie Cartier
My wife and I woke up to the fact that Joe Biden surpassed 270 electoral votes needed and that it appeared that he was in all likelihood going to be our next president and Kamala Harris our new VP, and… Read More ›
Poem: In These United States- The Court Supreme By Marie Cartier
We have nine justices usually but one of our most beloved, and notorious, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, RBG, has gone to the Summerland, across the Rainbow Bridge, to the afterlife—wherever that is for her, she’s gone there. May her memory be… Read More ›
From Military Wife to Peacebuilder – Learning from the Greenham Common Peace Women by Karen Leslie Hernandez
There’s a pinnacle moment, I believe, when everyone’s path is laid before them. The funny thing about that, is that we usually don’t see that moment, until many years later. It is then, at that sudden moment of clarity, in… Read More ›
Photo Essay: RBG Memorial by Marie Cartier
RBG Memorial, Long Beach Courthouse, Long Beach, CA September 19, 2020 All photos by: Marie Cartier
Poem: “Safer at Home in these United States” by Marie Cartier
Content Warning: Child abuse, domestic violence. ~~~~~~~ Safer at home is what we are told to do in these United States right now, and the idea is you will not be able to spread the virus, or catch the virus,… Read More ›
Poem: An Ode for Nurses during a Pandemic by Marie Cartier
— for Alex, a nurse I met who is also a poet, and all nurses I heard that you are a poet and a nurse. I imagine all the nurses who also are something else—a chef, a Mom,… Read More ›
Poem: Eight Minutes and Forty-six Seconds by Marie Cartier
I was in a funeral procession yesterday for a man I have never met. George Floyd. A man who was killed by a police officer. Mr. Floyd was black. The police officer is white and had his knee on… Read More ›
Drive-by Dyke March by Marie Cartier
That was sooo fun!!! D-Y-K-E what’s that spell? Dyke March!!! Dyke March Long Beach Drive March 2020!! did the regular route and then drove by elders who requested a drive-by ♡♡♡ two hours all over town ♡♡♡ We had 20 plus… Read More ›
The Phenomenology of Embodiment—a poem by Marie Cartier
In these United States and across the world we are in quarantine. Lockdown. Shelter in place. We’re alone together. And I miss it all: restaurants, coffee shops, movies, hanging out with friends in real time, But mostly I miss hugs—and… Read More ›
Walking in Moonlight Before the Pandemic by Marie Cartier and Kimberly Esslinger
For this month’s blog my wife, the poet Kimberly Esslinger, and I have written a joint poem— Walking in Moonlight Before the Pandemic and what is done to the least of these…. Where is the god of woman…. Read More ›
Poem: In These United States is a Woman Electable? by Marie Cartier
In these United States we are wondering if a woman is electable. Is she likeable enough? I donate to a woman candidate and I have put a sign on my front lawn with a woman’s name on it. I’m a… Read More ›
2020 Women’s March by Marie Cartier
Here we are at the fourth now annual Women’s March. I have done a photo essay of the March every year for Feminism and Religion (FAR), the first two from the Los Angeles March, and the last two from Orange… Read More ›
Poem: Make America Kind Again by Marie Cartier
Make America Kind Again was my favorite poster slogan of every Women’s March. We’ve had three and will have a fourth soon, January 18. I’ll be there and hope I see this sign again. It’s a sign that maybe it… Read More ›
Poem: She Works Hard for the Money and a Working Class Dream by Marie Cartier
My neighbor gets up at 2 a.m. and is at work by 3:30 a.m. Six days a week. She works hard for the money* She works at a grocery store. She has two dogs and I have two dogs. Our… Read More ›
Prose Poem – Rape is Robbery and We Want All of Our Stuff Back by Marie Cartier
We protect ourselves by saying it wasn’t that bad. It only happened once, twice, when I was little, when I was older, when I was drunk, when I was the only one not drinking, when I was alone, when I… Read More ›
The Maiden Tale of “It’s Happening”* by Marie Cartier
*with thanks to Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale In The Handmaid’s Tale women don’t have their own names anymore. They whisper them to each other in order to re-member who they are: June, Moira… maybe even Lydia Their bodies aren’t… Read More ›
#GunControlNow: While We Still Have Now by Marie Cartier
If you are somewhere: a movie theater, festival, mosque, temple or church, bar (especially a gay one although it could be any bar –cheers), concert, elementary to college classroom, or any other public space in America…and someone starts shooting, shooting… Read More ›
Poem: “How to Survive a Four Letter Word” by Marie Cartier
What is taken from a woman? When someone breaks her open and fills her with nothing of herself, and then leaves? She has to find all the pieces of herself. That’s why they call it—recovery. You have to… Read More ›
The Berlin Wall—what did the US learn? by Marie Cartier
I am writing this from Berlin. I am here for two weeks for the ALMS conference entitled, “Queering Memory.” Berlin is a city of such memory. You walk the streets and there are small brass plaques in the sidewalk in… Read More ›
Stopping to Smell the Flowers by Marie Cartier
There is a saying, “Take time to smell the flowers.” Attributed to many different sources, it means among other things– take time and be grateful. Take time and relax. Take time. In that spirit I am sending along pictures… Read More ›
