I had asked the women living in a women's shelter in the South Bronx to update a nursery rhyme to fit the times; one that would reflect their lives. L. B.'s poem folded me into humility with its truth and power:


Mary had a big, bad man
Big, bad man
Big, bad man
Mary had a big, bad man
Who beat her all day long.
He beat her from the day they met
Day they met
Day they met
He beat her from the day they met
'Til she could take no more.
—L. B.

And after hundreds of poems and tens of thousands of wept words, spilled on paper: white, crisp, and stiff as the sheet that lines the emergency room gurney, I am still humbled by the courage of these "Wimmin Wordsmith Warriors." Women who left everyone and everything that they knew to travel to a place where they might once again know themselves. Humbled still, that they are willing to share the most personal and tragic parts of their lives with a woman who comes to them bare-handed, except with only the offering of poems, pens, and paper. Humbled still, because by grace and goodness, Poets & Writers, in its commitment to give voice to the voiceless, said, "Yes, we will assist you in your assistance; stand strongly by as you attempt to heal heart and humanity."

Poets & Writers has been the beacon of light that illuminates the writing paper that is as white, crisp, and stiff as the sheet that lines an emergency room gurney. Paper that soaks up the sorrow of women who travel to homeless and domestic violence shelters, to find a place and space where their stories are bid welcome. And after they've laid pen and pain to rest, after lines have been lifted from page and frazzled face, and they read what they have written out loud to themselves and each other, I look at the faces of these "soul survivors" and I am filled with gratitude that there is funding—a line of life, given to these women. And that is what we, as writer and funder, in our partnership do: we extend a literary lifeline. Pulling our sisters in, over, from, and out of deep, turbulent, and troubled waters.

—Nikki Williams, teacher and poet

Since 2003, Poets & Writers has funded Williams's "LifeLines: A Lifting of Lives—A Soothing of Spirits" creative writing workshops for women living in homeless and domestic violence shelters.