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Â
Her
Head
Head
Â
Near
Ekuvukeni,
in Natal, South Africa,
a woman carries water on her
head.
After a year of drought,
when one child in three is at risk of
death,
she returns from a distant well,
carrying water on her
head.
Ekuvukeni,
in Natal, South Africa,
a woman carries water on her
head.
After a year of drought,
when one child in three is at risk of
death,
she returns from a distant well,
carrying water on her
head.
Â
The pumpkins
are gone,
the tomatoes withered,
yet the woman carries water on her
head.
The cattle kraals are empty,
the goats gaunt-
no milk now for
children,
but she is carrying water on her head.
are gone,
the tomatoes withered,
yet the woman carries water on her
head.
The cattle kraals are empty,
the goats gaunt-
no milk now for
children,
but she is carrying water on her head.
Â
The engineers
have reversed the river:
those with power can keep their power,
but one
woman is carrying water on her head.
In the homelands, where the dusty
crowds
watch the empty roads for water trucks,
one woman trusts herself
with treasure,
and carries water on her head.
have reversed the river:
those with power can keep their power,
but one
woman is carrying water on her head.
In the homelands, where the dusty
crowds
watch the empty roads for water trucks,
one woman trusts herself
with treasure,
and carries water on her head.
Â
The sun does
not dissuade her,
not the dried earth that blows against her,
as she
carries the water on her head.
In a huge and dirty pail,
with an idle
handle,
resting on a narrow can,
this woman is carrying water on her
head.
not dissuade her,
not the dried earth that blows against her,
as she
carries the water on her head.
In a huge and dirty pail,
with an idle
handle,
resting on a narrow can,
this woman is carrying water on her
head.
Â
This woman,
who girds her neck
with safety pins, this one
who carries water on her
head,
trusts her own head to bring to her people
what they need
now
between life and death:
She is carrying them water on her
head.
who girds her neck
with safety pins, this one
who carries water on her
head,
trusts her own head to bring to her people
what they need
now
between life and death:
She is carrying them water on her
head.
Â
~ Joan Murray
~
~
Â
(Looking for the
Parade)
Parade)
Web version at www.Panhala.net/Archive/Her_Head.html
Joan Murray is the author of six books, including Looking for the Parade (1999, W.W. Norton & Co, ISBN 0-393-04727-X), winner of the 1998 National Poetry Series (judged and selected by Robert Bly); Queen of the Mist: The Forgotten Heroine of Niagara (1999, Beacon); and The Same Water (1990, Wesleyan), Wesleyan New Poets Series winner.
Queen of the MistQueen of the Mist is a narrative poem which tells the true story of Annie Taylor, the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Joyce Carol Oates, who chose the book as runner-up for the Poetry Society of American's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, called Queen of the Mist, "imaginative, bold and suspenseful; a tour de force of narrative history and 'myth.'" Poet Alicia Ostriker asserts, "Murray has created an unforgettable woman: proud, brave, ridiculous and poignant; this heroic anti-heroine will carry you with her, over Niagara Falls and beyond." Most recently, Murray has adapted Queen of the Mist as a theatrical piece for the Jijamcyn Theatres (the Broadway theatre group) for an anticipated 2001 production.
Looking for the Parade examines some harrowing events of the passing century and the ordinary people who participated in them, as well as the narrator's own interior life. Robert Bly concluded," in Looking for the Parade, Joan Murray established herself as one of our most moving and dramatic poets."
She is also the recipient of PSA's Gordon Barber Award, a Knight Foundation Fellowship at Yaddo, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts.