Saturday, 14 March 2026

Forthwrite Women's Festival of Writing 2026 - My Showcase Piece

Learn from Great Women, Real and Fictional




Fear an Independent Woman - a haiku


Whore. Witch.

They call me names,

They sentence me to death.

They wanted to

For a long time before,

As I kept to myself.

I'm different.

Slut. Witch.



Alice Oseman - Rainbow Haikus


Alice Oseman's books

and comics I so relate,

They give love and hope.


Her works are sunshine,

Even through rain and thunder

There is a rainbow.


Always a rainbow

And it shines on everyone,

All flags included.


Representation

Inclusion and love and help,

That's Rainbow Alice.



A couple more haikus


Orchid Ness has phoned

She is never without mates

She is close with none.


Nisa No-nonsense

That is what she calls herself

In her noble voice.



Scoup!


My mother always schooled and scolded me about my use of language, and that I should never swear. So I'll say that I was too irate to scoup across the ballroom that fine afternoon. My dress was stiff and itchy - why did I need to wear the monstrous thing at rehearsals? - and the elderberry in my hair making me smell nice and juicy, barely covering up my sweat, was all that was keeping me from storming off, really swearing my head off.


So I thought to just tell mother that I had a fever - partly true thanks to the dress - and like the most honest party guest in the world, I voiced my ailment - also known as an innuendo for boredom - to my dance instructor, and did a leaver, my head not off but held high, all poised. With my gloved hands I pushed the heavy doors open and swanned out, and then pulled the elderberry out of my hair and ate it.


How's that for ladylike?


And who the fuck decided that should be one word?



I Love Being a Woman, No Matter How Much the World Doesn't Want Me To


Women are magic. Women are strong. Women are resilient. Women can survive anything.


Absolutely anything.


Women can know anything. Women can do whatever they want.


No one can survive anything without women.


We need each other. You need us.


You need us more than we need you. Deal with it.


We all - all genders - need each other - need to respect and love each other, to learn from each other, with no judgement and hate - to survive.


The more we learn from each others' differences, the more we realise that we are all, in fact, the same. The more we love each other, the more we love ourselves in the process.


Difference is good. Difference is a gateway to enlightenment and true, fulfilling happiness. 


Empathy is realising that everybody is different, and it’s one of the keys to happiness. Difference is natural, it is what it is; it opens your mind and heart and makes you consider what it means to be human and alive in the world.


Difference is a path to freedom. Difference is love.


As usual, no one's existence should be up for BS, arbitrary political debate. And no one deserves violence and erasure. No one - and no history - deserves erasure and banning.


Listen to everyone and everything around you.


Listen to your brain and your heart. Do what's right.


Let empathy in. Learn that every woman, every gender, deserves love.




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