I am maria!

Tag: poetry

  • Past her Prime

    Past her Prime

    They say I’m a woman”

    past her prime”who’s

    “run out of time”

    but,

    I have the ability to see the me,

    who was 20. . .

    Trapped in the loop of being the good girl,

    no mistakes allowed, trying hard,

    to make mama proud …

    then at 30. . . 

    It was the same.

    Playing that game, but now, I’m a mother,

    with another,

    other. . .

    Then came 40, still selflessly giving,

    then came 50, the reckoning. . .

    the veil lifted,

    clarity gifted,

    wont’t play the game,

    won’t be tame,

    won’t tone down,

    not going to stop,

    telling my story,

    even when they say,

    “you’ve had your day”

    “you look bad!”

    Oh, it just makes me mad!

    How dare they say,

    I’ve had my day!

    I’m not finished yet,

    I’ve earned the right, don’t you forget!

    They say, “she’s passed her prime”

    “run out of time”

    But honey, I’m only just getting started. 


    Look at me! 

    Look carefully!

    Take a picture if it helps you see!

    This is my time I’m moving into the light, 

    because it wasn’t right,

    what went on before,

    it’s time to open that other door,

    emerge from


    being told,

    “you’re too old”

    it’s “time to fade”

    They say I’m past my prime.

    But they’re wrong,

    It’s my time.

    I see the mirror,

    my reflection.

    It’s time now to reveal. . .

    The real

    The true

    The one and only. . .

    You.

    A warm invitation to learn more about I am Maria!

    What is I am Maria!

  • You Always Were My Little Angel

    You Always Were My Little Angel

    He said, “you always were my little angel,”

    in another time in another place,

    when I had another face,

    his little girl before. 


    The illness took his mind. He couldn’t find

    the essence of who he was.

    I tried and tried to see ,

    if he recognised me,

    everytime I went,

    the illness didn’t relent,

    It was sad,

    I wanted my Dad,

    but there was nothing we could do,

    he was hidden within the maze of the brain and he would never be the same.

    As time goes on and age sits in,

    I always think back to that day when,

    his eyes dim, looked at me to say,

    “You were always my little angel.”

    These poetic works emerge alongside the research, functioning as immediate expressions of voice, identity, and transformation.

    More Poems!

  • I look in the mirror

    I look in the mirror and what do I see, a woman? A girl?

    Waiting to be free….of all that they told her she had to be…

    Of the connotatations,

    the assumptions, the bringing down,

    of her pretending to be the clown,

    not feeling enough,

    not being tough,

    not moving forward,

    but staying stuck,

    in the muck of the past

    unknowingly…contributing tomaking it last,

    I look in the mirror and all I can seeis a woman a girl,

    waiting to go free!

    This video marks a new beginning for a poem originally written for I am Maria!. It now emerges as a moment of transformation and transfiguration of voice and artistic self, unfolding within a new paradigm.

    This work is not a standalone piece, but an evolving fragment that will form part of the live immersive performance I am Maria: Bloom.

    Visual material by Valeria Pazos (PhD candidate, Mexico), whose imagery forms part of this evolving collaboration.

    See more of Valeria’s work @valeria_pazosf

    See more of my sonic experiments

    Sonic Experiments

  • Their song, our song

    Their Song, our Song is a poem which reflects on the lived memories of women born into wartime and the lasting echoes carried across generations. Beginning with the story of a child left behind during the chaos of war, the poem traces a life shaped by hunger, labour, and the silencing of girls’ voices in a world where choice and agency were limited.

    Through reflection and witnessing, the work asks us to imagine those little girls who have now become old women, and to recognise the injustices they endured. It invites the present generation to carry their stories forward, transforming silence into song.

    This piece forms part of my ongoing creative research exploring voice, intergenerational memory, and the healing potential of artistic expression within the project I am Maria!

    Their Song, our song

    1943 my mother was born 

    In a country war torn

    bombs were going off.

    Mother of 5 picked up 4 and ran out the door leaving her behind not knowing what she’d come back to find. . .

    war baby grew 

    and what she knew.

    Hunger,

    child labour,

    education was a favour a luxury,

    girls were currency,

    with

    no agency,

    no choice,

    no voice.

    Imagine that can you somehow?

    The little girls old ladies now,

    recognise that it was wrong.

    It’s up to us to carry them,

    to a new day,

    to a new song!

    The following audio file is a sonic setting to this poem which reflects on war memory, women’s voices, and the intergenerational stories that continue to live within us. These themes are closely connected to my Croatian heritage, where song and language carry cultural memory across generations.

    👉 Discover more in the Croatian Voice and Song Collection

  • On the Verge

    On the Verge

    Her lips tremble

    and she feels the pain

    of what she held in

    not giving way.

    Let the words spill 

    out into the light of day!

    Like a landslide 

    they will no longer be contained

    things she kept in like bad medicine 

    like a cough spill 

    out of her lips

    coming out

    giving a sense of bliss 

    of lightness and 

    feeling less

    wrong.

    Keep talking beauty

    keeping silent was never your duty. 

    It was a ban mostly imposed by a man.

    Now you can bloom,

    your lips no longer tremble,

    not a quiver,

    as the words roll out of you

    like a river,

    limpid clear and true,

    there was never anything wrong with you.

    This poem is part of the broader creative research journey I am Maria! where voice, identity, and feminine narratives are explored through poetry, song, and immersive performance. Emerging from the final stanza of On the Verge, Bloom is an electronic vocal work that traces a moment of rupture and release, where the voice moves beyond containment toward expression, transformation, a return to origin, and self-acceptance.

    Explore more creative reflections from the I am Maria! project HERE

  • Femminista – How does it make you feel?

    There’s always an uncomfortable feeling in the air 

    when she’s there flicking her hair without a care.

    They wait in silence  to see if she’ll dare

    to say something else to make them aware of 

    their limited vision learnt through television,

    And what they thought a woman should be.

    How dare she see through their

    manipulative business!

    How dare she call them out with no finesse!

    Doesn’t she know?

    Feminists not allowed in this crowd, it’s a dirty word,

    haven’t you heard?

    A woman who dares,

    A woman who stares straight at you,

    she’s called your bluff!

    Your small minded thinking, she’s got the flush and she’s had enough!

    Full house! 

    Too bad for you  she won’t stay silent,

    even when your violent

    with your words

    she rises above it and tells you to shove it!

    FEMINIST!

    Discover more artistic work here

  • One Summer — A Poem of Childhood, Memory, and Time

    @just.iammaria

    she/her

    Snapshot

    The memory of you warms my heart.

    Cold dark corners warmed by your light.

    I remember the feeling,

    the sound ,

    the smell in the air,

    the carefree laughter,

    the orange-pink sunsets,

    sun sinking slowly, like a sleeping giant.

    The creaking rope on the swing as I watch the petals fall day by day,

    signalling gently that my time is fading away.

    Three days,

    two days

    one. . .

    Time tightly grips around my heart,

    I don’t want to be apart,

    I felt it even then as a child,

    moments were transient,

    I was keenly aware,

    that summer was ending there,

    and the Bora came. . .

    with it the dreaded last day.

    It was time to go, and I remember you face as the car drove away,

    the pain in your eyes, I cried and cried.

    No more turning back, never again, would I see you as that girl,

    the one that existed then,

    the one that felt that way,

    that day.

    Looking back, it feels like a dream,

    and I was that child,

    who sang,

    who danced,

    pondered,

    watched and felt.

    You know I’ll never forget that summer, seeing you every day.

    Now it warms my heart this memory, and it will never go away,

    Those feelings, those moments I remember them now,

    and the child awakens, smiles and waves.

    This poem forms part of my ongoing creative research project I am Maria!, exploring memory, voice, and becoming through poetic practice. More artistic expressions in other forms maybe found here

  • you are a story like a book waiting to be opened, revealing truth, inspiration and wonder

    We are story carriers

    @just.iammaria

    She/her

    Yes, we carry stories within us.


    From the moment our lives are conceived, we have already perceived what and who came before us. Later in life, we reenact many of their ways of being, embodying echoes of those who came before.

    This may explain the inexplicable feelings we trundle around with throughout our lives: the feelings and perceptions about ourselves, how we see ourselves.

    When I began my MPhil, using I am Maria! as a site of investigation, transforming the classical singer from interpreter to complete creative artist, messages I had missed previously within I am Maria! emerged, disrupting what I once thought was complete.

    I remembered significant moments in my life: seeing my grandmother in Croatia and singing with her, hearing her voice.

    Deeper meanings began to surface: intergenerational connections, the feelings and emotions that certain languages stir within. I found myself yearning at times to hear my mother’s voice speaking her mother tongue. I felt the need to explore those sounds myself, through singing, movement and spoken word.

    My Baba all in black
    She sings beautifully,
    She really does.
    When I see her sing, I feel like I’m seeing myself.
    Then,
    There’s something extra...
    LOVE...
    That’s what she is.
    My Baba, all in black,
    Lines on her face that life wrote,
    Delicate bones, high cheekbones,
    A smile
    That makes you hope you started it.
    A million and one tales to tell,
    A million and one songs to sing.

    Poem from I am Maria!
    Author: Marina Poša, 2022

    We are carriers of stories.
    The beauty of being human is the ability to express these stories through artistic creation, song, art, theatre, film and writing.

    The stories we carry and finally share are, in truth, the stories of everyone.
    They forge connections of love and community.
    They say: “You matter. Your stories matter. So tell them.”

    Our stories heal and reveal what it means to be human,
    the marvel that we are,
    and all that we can become.

    Watch the video of poem from I am Maria! Confirmation here

  • Breaking barriers, from Flamenco to the Future

    @just.iammaria

    She/her

    As I continue my academic and creative journey, I find myself increasingly drawn to exploring greater freedom and authenticity through my singing voice.

    I often wonder how I might access my natural, untrained voice , as distinct from my trained, classical one. To do so, I must consciously undo certain habits and expectations instilled through years of classical training, and learn to accept sounds that, to me, once seemed ugly or foreign. Yet these sounds are undeniably me , part of my vocal identity. My voice, my sounds, they carry my energy, my soul, and my story.

    This process of creative and vocal exploration feels thrilling, yet I’ve long sensed that such experimentation seems more permissible for contemporary singers than for classical ones. When a classically trained singer ventures beyond the expected boundaries, it often seems to “not work” sonically or at least, that’s what we’ve been told.

    Then, something exciting happened. A contemporary singer whose career I’ve followed for the past eight years, Rosalía, an artist with flamenco roots released a new album that beautifully merges classical and contemporary sound worlds. On it, she explores her own classical tone and technique, and it is utterly captivating.

    In her New York Times interview, Rosalía says:

    “Everything is in constant movement… why shouldn’t my sound change with me?”

    Isn’t that the truth? Why shouldn’t our voices evolve as we do? Why are we so attached to definition, to labels, to the boxes we build around ourselves?

    Throughout my life as a classical singer, I’ve heard the same cautions repeated:

    “Don’t sing contemporary music, you’ll damage your voice.”
    “You’ll undo your classical technique.”

    Has anyone else heard these reasonings?

    Now, I feel even more determined to continue down this path of vocal and creative exploration to find out what else lives inside my voice, my body, my imagination.

    More colours, more possibility, more storytelling await when I open myself to the next chapter of my sound.

    , , , , , , , @rosalia.vt #flamenco #breakingbarriers #style #genre

    This reflection is part of my ongoing creative research journey, I am Maria! An exploration of voice, identity, and transformation. Through song, story, and self-inquiry, I continue to listen for the voice that remembers, heals, and creates – Marina