Voices of Light: Spiritual and Visionary Poems by Women Around the World from Ancient Sumeria to Now

Voices of Light: Spiritual and Visionary Poems by Women Around the World from Ancient Sumeria to Now by Aliki Barnstone. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781570622830.

These are the voices of women who, throughout the ages, yearned for self-realization and union with the divine. The words of the first known poet were chiseled on cuneiform tablets four thousand years ago. Her name was Enheduanna; she was a moon priestess and daughter of the king of Sumeria, a woman of power and privilege who wrote, "From the doorsill of heaven comes the word: Welcome!" Millennia later, Emily Dickinson would write, "Why — do they shut Me out of Heaven?/ Did I sing — too loud?" Voices of Light brings together spiritual poems by women from around the world and allows these women to sing loudly, whether or not they were welcomed by the heavens or their own social situations. Though often deprived of public position, women have long practiced the personal art of writing and so have been prepared to be our spiritual and visionary voices of light.