‘Phenomenal Woman: A Poetic View of the Social Construction of Widows
A collaborative project by Caroline Coyle and Nicole McKenna
The works included a short film, a paper and a presentation around recent
conversations with women from St Mary’s Church Active Age Group and the
Widow’s Association in Athlone, Co Westmeath. Using poetry as a gateway in to these
communities and as a pathway of engagement, the women shared and vocalised their feelings around a huge range of topics, including: age, widowhood, friendship and what is important to them.
Poetry:
“Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou ( 1995).
“This is not a love poem” by Caroline Coyle (2015).
The works were presented at:
Women and Ageing: New Cultural and Critical Perspectives (2015)
University of Limerick
Galway International Summer School on the Arts and Human Rights (2015)
Galway University
WAM Research Summer School (2015)
University of Gloucestershire
UK
POEM by Caroline Coyle
This is not a Love Poem
I wish I didn’t love you, in fact I think it’s only lust
And I can see no future for the two of us,
I only want to taste you
Take a sip and put you back
Fit you back in together in your humdrum pack.
I don’t want the trials of heartbreak
I don’t want the cooing doves
I haven time to think about the fisticuffs of love
When you creep into my daydreams
When you enter in the night
When I drift and think about you
I put up a kind of fight
This is taken up my time
And I’ve got things to do
I just wish that this would past and I’d be over you.
So I tell myself its nothing
That you don’t even know my name
That you don’t see me as I see you
And to you it’s just a game
This is futile and it’s dangerous
And it’s me that going to lose
To be or not to be… not to be… is what I choose.
© Caroline Coyle
To discuss or request a presentation of this project, please get in touch via our contact page.