The Gleaners by Fern G. Z. Carr

The Gleaners, by Jean-Francois Millet, 1857.

The Gleaners

Three peasant women –
babushka-like kerchiefs,
coarse homespun garb,
the hems of their skirts
skirting
the stubble
of harvested fields.

Millet’s rustic canvas,
Des glaneuses –
an autumnal
coming-to-fruition
of the harvest cycle
in nineteenth century
agrarian France;
the gleaning
after reaping –  

dregs collected by
marginalized women
who stoop and gather,
stoop and gather,
gather and stoop
meagre sheaves and stalks;

marginalized women
who strive for sustenance
with humble dignity.

Fern G. Z. Carr

FERN G. Z. CARR is a Director of Project Literacy, lawyer, teacher and past President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She is a Full Member of and former Poet-in-Residence for the League of Canadian Poets.  Carr composes and translates poetry in five languages while currently learning Mandarin Chinese.  A 2013 Pushcart Prize nominee, she has been published extensively world-wide from Finland to Mauritius. In addition to multiple prizes and awards, honours include being cited as a contributor to the Prakalpana Literary Movement in India; her poetry having been taught at West Virginia University and set to music by a Juno-nominated musician; an online feature in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper; and her poem, “I Am”, chosen by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate as Poem of the Month for Canada.  Carr is thrilled to have one of her poems presently orbiting the planet Mars aboard NASA’S MAVEN spacecraft. www.ferngzcarr.com.