{"id":8135,"date":"2007-09-21T22:38:56","date_gmt":"2007-09-22T03:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/09\/21\/the-hands-of-women-by-pamela-mille"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:42","slug":"the-hands-of-women-by-pamela-miller-ness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/09\/21\/the-hands-of-women-by-pamela-miller-ness\/","title":{"rendered":"the hands of women<\/i> by pamela miller ness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

T<\/strong><\/em>o mark the activities of Haiku North America 2007<\/a>, in August 2007, our honored guest poet Pamela Miller Ness<\/a> (current President of the Haiku Society of America, and editor\/publisher of Red Lights<\/a> Tanka Journal<\/em>) had 250 copies of the chapbook The Hands of Women<\/em><\/strong> printed by Swamp Press\/Lily Pond Press. This loving commemoration of the “needlewomen<\/em>” in Pamela’s life is a remarkable sequence of 6 haiku and 4 tanka, which I wanted to share with the readers of f\/k\/a<\/em>. When I asked Pamela if I could post her chapbook in full, she immediately and generously gave her permission. Therefore, you will find The Hands of Women<\/em> reprinted below in its entirety. Many thanks to Pamela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

. . . . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

. . . . . . . .<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

first day of the year
\nI take up my needles
\nand knit a row<\/p>\n

She knits
\na Fair Isle sweater
\neach stitch formed
\nby the hands of women
\nwho have gone before.<\/p>\n

first day of spring
\nI wind the ball
\nof lime green yarn<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spring
\nof her 80th year
\nshe knits a shawl
\nall the colors
\nof the rainbow<\/p>\n

\n

hurricane over
\nthe click click click
\nof knitting needles<\/p>\n

the wee hours
\nweaving loose ends
\ninto my knitting<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

vigil
\nshe knits a scarf
\nthe color of sky<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

winter solstice
\nI unravel my knitting
\nand begin again<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Midwinter dusk:
\nyou practice flute,
\nI crochet . . .
\nwould that it could
\nalways be so.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Binding off
\nthe baby blanket
\nI wind
\nand store the unused yarn.
\nLast day of the year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

my mother & grandmothers<\/em>
\n and all the needlewomen<\/em>
\n who have gone before<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

by Pamela Miller Ness<\/a> – The Hands of Women<\/em>
\n(Lily Pond Press\/Swamp Press<\/a>, August 2007)<\/p>\n

Acknowledgments <\/strong>
\nSome of these poems have appeared in
\nMariposa, Modern English Tanka,
\nModern Haiku, Penumbra,
\nSixty Sunflowers<\/em> (TSA Members
\nAntholgy) & Solaris Hill<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

<\/strong> If you would like a letter-press printed copy of Pamela\u2019s chapbook The Hands of Women<\/em>, please contact her directly at – DeuceDK AT aol DOT com . The $5.00 price includes an envelope for gift-giving and postage. Even if the \u201cneedlewomen\u201d [or needlemen] you know aren\u2019t yet haiku and tanka lovers, they will appreciate this beautifully-written and printed chapbook.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark the activities of Haiku North America 2007, in August 2007, our honored guest poet Pamela Miller Ness (current President of the Haiku Society of America, and editor\/publisher of Red Lights Tanka Journal) had 250 copies of the chapbook The Hands of Women printed by Swamp Press\/Lily Pond Press. This loving commemoration of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2422,555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-haiku-or-senryu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-27d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12456,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions\/12456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}