Welcome to the world of
Timeless Women: Heroines of History
Poems of Inspiration for All Girls and Women
This site contains poems to honor heroic women – young and old – who’ve graced our planet in the last five thousand years or so. There are many, many more whose names are now lost to us. Together, women can accomplish anything. For the first time in history, it is possible for us to come together, meet – if briefly and electronically – and get to know each other a little, no matter where we live on our planet. Electronics and speedy transportation now enable potential mingling of voices anywhere. So never fear you are alone on your journey. Whatever challenges your culture has set in your path, a female before you has faced a similar hurdle and persisted. Some, like the girls and women in this collection, have even managed to live heroic lives. I hope they will inspire you to live yours as well as possible!
Never has the wisdom of women been needed so urgently. Greed, fear and resultant endless wars have created a political and ecological imbalance destroying the very planet on which we live. Please join me in the hope of a better future that every girl born on Earth will – one day – take a part in designing.
Section 1 – Contains poems I wrote for four ancient Heroines.
Section 2 – Contains poems written for Heroines of Middle Ages to Modern Times.
Section 3 – Contains an assortment of (mostly) Western discriminatory cultural practices only females have had to face throughout time.
Emotional WARNING: I wrote the poems in Section 3 after learning of cultural atrocities that have been – or are still being – inflicted on girls and women around the world. These poems are not for children, though some of them, unfortunately, are about children. I include them here because many outrageously misogynist punishments still exist. They are harmful, unhealthy practices only females are made to endure. So what purpose do these cultural norms / traditions / religious observances really serve? Where do they come from (if not the books men write and read)? Why are these practices not considered overt criminal discrimination? And what can we do to bring about civilized, healthy changes? I have listed some suggestions in the following pages.
Elizabeth S. Greywolf
