on reading an account of Virginia Woolf's death

I'm thinking of a woMan who walked

into the waters of a river

with stones in her pockets

thinking of the waters

of the rivers of my life

thinking of the stones

in My pockets

woMen are born

with stones in their pockets

eMpty them       eMpty theM swiM

--Karen Ethelsdatter, 2002

Another great poem and one of my favourites. It was published a few years ago in a We'Moon Datebook. I just love the concluding line in particular, with its clarion call to Life.