The Power She Holds
This is the full version of the poem featured in my first visual art piece, a collaboration with Liss Febrero: The Power She Holds. The piece is a textile-style mural that pairs my poetry with Liss’s illustration. We came together to curate colours and create the work by hand something neither of us had done before. You can read more about the piece here in this Werklund Centre Blog post by Marcus Ogden “Threading Together”
The lives of the women that came before us
are stories told through vibrant colours
and love woven into our clothes.
The lessons handed down through hands that have held us through life and smiles that shined in their eyes.
The quiet echo of their strength,
is a soft reminder that we are shaped by every woman
who whispered courage into the fabric of our lives.
In her hands lay a tapestry of dreams
sewn together by threads of hope
through a needle
forged by the sun.
Hands that shaped the patterns of our cultures
with the promise of all the mornings yet to come.
Each stitch carried the memory of laughter shared in warm kitchens,
of tears wiped away with gentle certainty,
of stories spoken in the hush of night
when truth felt safest in the dark.
In her hands lay the weight of generations
not as a burden, but as a blessing.
A reminder that every step forward is walked
on paths paved by women
who refused to disappear.
And as she wove, the world around her softened,
she knew that love, when crafted with intention,
becomes an heirloom .
Passed from heart to heart,
from mother to daughter,
from woman to woman,
until it becomes the very thread
that holds us all together.
