Maybe Call it 'Matriarch's Day' Instead

And what if Sarah hadn't become a mother? Read on for today's poem, and more

The Sleeping Goddess of Malta

The case of the missing matriarch

When a writer¹ in one of my Dreaming on the Page workshops used the phrase the missing matriarch in a piece she was working on, my imagination lit up with possibilities. The other women in the class were intrigued, too. The personal resonance the phrase had for the writer was amplified by each of us according to how we had lived out the mother archetype in our lives: as motherless daughters, mothers who had lost a child, fulfilled mothers, or as women who did not become mothers – whether by choice or circumstance.

All too often, we agreed, stories of powerful women and mothers; the matriarchs in our lives and lineages who could wisely guide us, have been erased.

The Life of H is my attempt to write Sarah, a foremother and a matriarch, back into the narrative.

My poems are invitations to imagine a more robust version of her story; one that calls us more deeply into our own experience of being women — with and without children of our own.

H, as in Womb:

Today’s poem “H, as in Womb,” considers other possibilities for an empty womb rather than simply being written off as a barren space.

Press the blue arrow below the image to listen to the poem.

"H, as in Womb" by Tzivia Gover, in the Mom Egg Review vol. 20

Copyright 2022-2023 Tzivia Gover, Third House Moon, LLC all rights reserved

For the story behind today’s poem, keep reading.