HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!
Kenojuak Ashevak, Inuit Artist
her art is alive dancing
on the edges of every blink & focus
tethering sight to the soul & yanking – kindly
she transfers the land & animals
the above & the below the centre & the deep
into the matrix holding images carved & coloured
in perfect pressure harmony – the reflection of
an impression that breathes beyond its surface
her creativity blooms from family & the arc
of Time as it splays itself playfully from the
spaces in her body & spirit that were born to
connect the people to the place to the
necessary now of the tumbling thunder that is art
her face is moon wrinkles sparking
sparkling holding the rhythm of the
qilautik – her stamina a direct descendant
of the caribou skin wrapped katuk
behold behold her enchanted owl
her rabbit eating seaweed her wolves
in spring & all the gracious others – metamorphose
meaningfully magically give thanks
I wrote this poem for Mariette, who requested a poem on demand about Kenojuak Ashevak. Thank you, Mariette, for bringing this incredible artist into our life…and for those who already knew of her magnificence, do share her!
Research:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/kenojuak-ashevak
Join Mariette Jones on Facebook Live every Monday in March as she share her Love Speaks messages. Starting today at 12:30pm, Mariette will give a short, inspiring talk that ends with a call to action for International Women’s Day!
Today is International Women’s Day! There will be many events and celebrations all day…all week, perhaps even all month! Today I will send love and gratitude messages to women I admire and love. I will continue to read and watch and educate myself about the women who have come before me, the women who are here now and thriving for the betterment of women’s rights and equality, and I will commit to being the best, kindest, compassionate woman, mother, sister, friend, leader, writer I can be.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 