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As some of you may know, I hold creative writing workshops and I also tutored creative writing for the local council for many years before Covid came along. Tutoringadultscan be rewarding (discovering wonderful writers),chaotic (my lesson plans were rarely followed – someone inevitably took things off at a tangent) hilarious (theundiscoveredcomedian/ thecompletely unaware comedian) and thought-provoking (especially with memoir writing andpoetry) I’ve kept promising to share some of their work. Hereis a thoughtful piece of free verse poetry, written quite a few years ago, by the now very successful author, Alex Craigie. It’s one of my favourites., and, I feel, appropriate for these times.

In the beginning:

Woman

Is an

Afterthought;

Anoff-cut

Of rib.

1917

Woman

Has no

Vote.

A chattel

Trapped in

Relentless

Domesticity.

1957

Woman,

Given by

Her father,

Pledges to

Obey

At the altar.

1967

Woman

Drinks from the

Poisoned chalice

Of permissiveness.

Prude…