Having a website and Blog are all new to me. I thought I would post the information from the dust cover of the hardcover of By the Pond:
I have lived in Southwest Michigan all my life. My sister and I were raised by my dad’s mother after he passed away at 29 in 1965. Gramma retired early from her factory job to take care of us. She was a widow. We lived on my dad’s Social Security and hers, food stamps, and Medicaid. However, there was love and she was a strong independent Italian woman. No one pushed her or those she loved around.
When I started writing in 1977, I hoped one day to publish a book of poetry. I never imagined in my wildest dreams the journey my poetry and I would go on together. It has been long and filled with anger, confusion, sadness, tears, regret, and a sense of relief in giving those struggles a form. My poetry reflects a private place shared with very few. The choice to share my poetry now has not been an easy one.
Yet I still see the glass half full and believe there is more good than bad around us. Many of my ideas you may find unusual. My wish is you will come away with a sense of hope for yours and our world‘s future. Our struggles do not have to hold us in place. We can be more.
My poetry has been my therapy over the years. In 1993, an unusual traumatic event occurred with me. Poetry over the years has been my sorting out process. I have always had a strong spiritual nature balanced by strong doubt. During period of tremendous confusion, my poetry (sometimes more like stories my son thinks) helped me remember who I am, how I feel, and what I think and always have from a child. The theme I hope comes through is that we should not have our heads too far into the clouds or too deeply into the dirt. Life lives as balance somewhere in the middle with little visits to both edges. All 56 years of my life I have lived in Michigan. I was born in Kalamazoo September 16, 1958. My parents separated when I was young do to my mother’s mental illness. Dad died in 1965 at 29 from a cerebral hemorrhage. I was 6 when he passed. Grandma Peggy (my dad’s mother) went to court 7 times in a year and a half to fight for my younger sister (Kim who was mentally impaired) and me, because my dad had asked her too. She won custody of us. So, I lived with her in Bangor, Michigan through high school and college. I didn’t begin to write poetry until I went to live with my aunt (my mother’s sister) in Wartervliet, Michigan while attending Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor. My aunt lived near my mother and her mother (my Grandma Elsie). After 2 years there, I attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts major in English and minor in Elementary Education. Right out of college fall of 1984 I was hired at St. Mary’s in Paw Paw, Michigan as a kindergarten teacher. I taught kindergarten for 1 year half days and was moved into a full-time first grade position for three years. I met my husband Gary during that time. On October 17, 1987, we married and I moved to Fennville, Michigan where I still live. Gary and I have a son age 24 and a daughter age 19.
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