(Graphic credit: WSKG Public Media)
WSKG, our local public broadcaster serving the Southern Tier of New York and Northern Tier of Pennsylvania, sponsored a call for poets in our region as we observe the semiquincentennial of the United States of America.
The call asked for poems addressing one or more of these themes:
Looking Back: history, founding ideals, and untold stories
Right Now: modern America, democracy today, and lived experience
Looking Forward: hopes for future generations.
They received 163 submissions from 25 counties, which I thought was a very impressive showing from our region’s poets!
You can read the ten winning entries here and listen to recordings of their work, nine as of July 2nd, here. (The link to the recordings may not be a permalink, but should work through July, 2026, at least.)
All the submissions were compiled into an anthology. At over 200 pages, it shows the breadth of talent from our region.
For my entry, I combined all three themes around the concept of women’s rights. I intentional wrote two 13-line stanzas, in honor of the 13 colonies that became states. Because I chose to only use the first names of the people I referenced, I also included an explanatory note.
We Work and Wait
by Joanne Corey
Remember the ladies, Abigail
wrote John before the Declaration
but after Sojourner, Elizabeth, Susan
and their sisters of the First Wave
Betty, Gloria, Angela
and their sisters of the Second Wave
Judith, Rebecca, Amy
and their sisters of the Third Wave
Tarana, Wendy, Jessica
and their siblings of the Fourth Wave
and the passage of 250 years
women still work toward
their full independence.
When Shirley ran in ‘72
my girl-self thought soon
but as Wave after Wave
crashed against that
highest, hardest glass ceiling
it inexplicably held.
Will it be my daughters
or my granddaughters
who see the First Ms.
President, the Second
Third, Fourth? So many
they don’t think
to keep count.
Note: People referenced in this poem in order of appearance: Abigail Adams, John Adams, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, Judith Butler, Rebecca Walker, Amy Richards, Tarana Burke, Wendy Davis, Jessica Valenti, Shirley Chisholm. Quote from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 concession speech.
I’m grateful to WSKG for this project and the opportunity to respond creatively and share poems with the community. I hope you engage with the arts, whether as a creator or an interactor, at this critical moment in United States history.
Joanne Corey 