Poetry has been a part of my life since childhood.  I grew up with classics like A Child’s Garden of Verses and had an early relationship with Wordsworth through poems like “Daffodils,” and a lesser-known one entitled “We Are Seven.”  In retrospect that one seems a morbid favorite for a child but I recall being drawn into that story of a little girl who was determined not to exclude deceased siblings from the family count.

My school days were an era when teachers commonly required students to memorize poetry.  How happy I am that I learned many poems “by heart” back when my mind had enough flexibility to store them.  Here’s a shout out to my ninth grade English teacher, R.L. Richardson at Greenville (SC) Junior High School with thanks for the fragments I retain today.

My higher education and career were in law. As an attorney and, later, an administrative judge, I wrote pleadings, briefs and opinions, not poems.  Happily, retirement presented a chance to try poetry.  In moving to western North Carolina, I struck gold.  I discovered the Great Smokies Writing Program!  There I studied under a number of excellent poet/teachers and alongside gifted classmates.  in 2021 I returned to coastal Georgia but those relationships and lessons continue to influence my reading and my writing.