The Woman Who Named Herself

By Ruth Zachary

This is Ruth Zacharys fi rst book. It was meant to especially
honor lesbian women who have named themselves to proclaim their identity and gender preference. The book is organized according to transitions from early experience to later life. Her poems speak tenderly of the fi rst expressions of loving a woman, the passionate encounters with others in relationships, struggles within society, the excruciating pain of loss, and other issues. Often delivered in rich metaphoric language, they deal with vulnerabilities, strengths, depths of love, and issues of community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 4, 2010
• ISBN: 9781462823734

Ruth Zachary

This third collection of Poems by Ruth Zachary expresses a variety of experiences of Spirit, drawing from her own exposure to multicultural traditions. Ms. Zachary shares her ideas through poetry, because the metaphoric nature and process of poetry is closely related to the experience of Spirit. Her writing explores aspects of life purpose, life lessons, growth, ethics, dealing with difficulty, matters of death or life as well as many other spiritual issues, such as the experience of synchronicity and symbols in life experience. Her poems are offered as examples s of spiritual issues, but are not advocated as a way of life for others. She offers more questions than conclusions. Her attitude toward spiritual questions is to have an open mind and to keep the door open regarding that which is unknown. Her poems were organized within an outline in the Contents. She assumes each person’s Spiritual path is an entirely individual and personal process. Even still, she shares her questions and challenges, with openness and honesty. Ms. Zachary has been a social worker, an artist and a writer. She was a News Reporter in a suburb of Grand Rapids, MI for seven years until she moved to Colorado. She continues to exhibit her artwork and write, and is active with local art and writing groups that encourage both interests.

Book preview

The Woman Who Named Herself

Written and Illustrated

By Ruth Zachary

Copyright © 2010

Cover Illustration,

Wolf Totem

By Ruth Zachary.

All Rights Reserved.

For permission to reproduce selections

from this book, contact the author at

[e-mail]

68 Poems, more than

152 Pages including

10 Illustrations

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

86002

Contents

The Woman Who Found Her Own True Name

Women Who Love Too Much

Pandora’s Gifts

Bridge to No Woman’s Land

The Initiation

Winter Discovery

Holly Young

Vu Ja De

I want to ask.

Petaled Rose

Mustang

Letter to Athena from Metis

An Under Heard Remark

Hecate’s Bitch

Ambush

The Letter

Sagittarius

Harvest of the Rose

You Left

Fire and Air

Second Person Present

Nothing Left to Say.

Machette

Pursed Lips

Dry Eyes

Water and Air

The Red Haired Woman

Even Sappho Could Not Hold Me

Flying Lesson

Dammed Words

Amazon

The Continuum

Idol in African Ivory

Winter Solstice 1995

The Vision of a Wolf Woman

Kaleidoscope

Therapy

Omen

Stranger at my Door

October Raspberries

The Winter is New

Lover

Woman In Blue

Daffodil

Teachers Out of School

Wounded

Claiming the Lineage of Lesbos

Women Who Name Themselves

How I Became a Drama Queen

Re-Closeted

Politically Correct

Baby Dyke Names Herself Lesbian

Nobody At All?

Star In the East

Big Barbie Heaven

I Want

When Stones Speak

Remember When?

Ambivalence

Butch

Love Reconsidered

Epiphany

Chinook, the Snow Eater

Your Imprint on the pillow

Lover’s Creed

How Would I Name Myself?

A Handful of Friends.

The Spiral Path

Ruth Zachary’s Artwork

About the Poems

All of these poems are about being Lesbian. The title was chosen to honor all the women who have openly named themselves and their place within the society in which we live. The book includes reflections about various experiences and stages of Lesbian life.

Ultimately, the poems convey my own unique perspective and are subjective, and in that sense, fictional. It is my hope, however, that others may enjoy common ground in this book. Most of these poems are about subjects to which many women could relate. Many poems are alternately told in the first, second or third person voice. Some are fictional and others combine responses to situations stimulated by more than one person. It would be a mistake to assume a poem is about any one person. Names are altered to avoid reference to any particular person, unless named as a tribute.

These poems have been written over many years but are not chronologically sequenced by the date of writing, or when events happened. They are arranged generally to address different phases in life, but also to lay the pages out in an aesthetic arrangement. Sometimes the sequence may seem to imply a story that never happened.

The illustrations were not meant to depict any specific poem. They were originally created as color intaglio etchings and were well received by women in various communities. It is hoped that used in this context the poems and images will complement each other, and offer these women a small collection of my art and writing.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Jean Fleming, my partner of many years, whose inspiration, companionship, love, ideas and constant help in life made it possible to create, compile and complete this collection.

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The Woman Who Found Her Own True Name

She could never believe

the woman in the mirror

should have the name

her mother had given her.

She reached out with psychic

fingers, as if to feel out the

name in the spiritual plane

that matched her being.

For a time,

it was as if she was twins,

one who had one name,

and the other, another.

When she finally felt

she could fit the

person she was

into all she wanted to be,

she claimed her own true name.

Women Who Love Too Much

I came for the discussion at Pandora’s Books.

I arrived early and took a chair

in the sparsely furnished room

which was soon filled; no standing room left,

so many sat on the floor.

I guessed over fifty women had come.

Beautiful women, black women, fat women,

small or tall women, young and wrinkled;

women wearing T-tops, shorts or jeans.

And Birkenstocks on their feet.

Women pressed together

leaned on each other in familiar comfort,

pairs moved as in a dance, with tandem grace.

It was then I knew!