Collective Noun (A Wave of Women) by Lizzie Lovejoy

We don’t often use collective nouns, 
but we hear them around 
now and then 
A School of Fish might come up when 
you’re doing a pub quiz 
drinking bucks fizz 
on a cheeky night out. 
But I’ve noticed more of them about 
When an Army of Frogs is in migration, 
or maybe in a situation 
where you need a Bunch of Flowers? 
Since I saw them, I spent hours 
pouring over lists of this literary feature 
learning nouns for almost every creature with a Pounce of cats 
and a Cloud of gnats 
or a Fascination of hats… 
But I got to a point where I questioned peoples nouns. The noun for women. I couldn’t believe it when I read what google said. 
A Gaggle. 

So I decided we need a change 
most collective nouns are something strange but not usually so… wrong. 
I asked it too a room of women 
and from the beginning 
we had some tough contenders 
from these female rights defenders. 
A power. A labour. A pride. 
But it’s not something we could decide…
Our collective noun: what will we be? I think that we’re a wave of women As far as the eye can see, 
we will flood the streets. 
Night after night, we will repeat 
our call to action, to reclaim our homes. These pathways are our own. 
We live them, we love them, we flood them. 

A wave of women, in time with the tide, joining together where streams collide, fierce waters which will provide 
sustenance while carving the ground, our splashing brine the sound 
of nourishment, creating the green. Our impact is seen 
in every deen 
and every valley. 
Alongside the Tyne we rally, 
Tributaries, a life stream, we feed the whole, freedom, joy, love, our ultimate goal. Reclaim the night 
Because it is our right 
to be one and the other, to say Yes and No, It is our right to change and grow. 
We flow 
all over this beautiful city, 
we not are weak, not asking for pity: We 
are power. 
Witness our rainbow in every waterfall shower. 

We are sisters, we are sirens, we are streams, we deserve to take our dreams, 
overflowing, bursting at the seams 
and set them free,
build them into reality. 

Watch us, our surface shines and glistens. We will speak, we will listen 
We will hear and be heard 
We deserve to use our words 
our voice, 
we deserve the choice 
Because we are worthy, we are human, we are a wave. 
Help me to be brave, 
Coventina, The lady of the lake, of wells and springs 

Coventina, Northumberlands Queen 
your waters show us who we’ve been 
find us at every river bed and bay 
Our collective noun, not a gaggle, not a bouquet Coventina a better name you gave, 
We northern women, we are a Wave.