Sunflowers

About the Book

In this book of poetry, I have included poems written from my midtwenties to my midforties. As long as I can remember, I’ve written poetry or some facsimile thereof. Words have enchanted me, and I see poetry as a form of painting. The various categories capture feelings evoked in me about my grandmother, my mother, my children, the various lovers I had while single, and my experiences in or with nature. The title, Sunflowers, derives from the reality that sunflowers give rise to more sunflowers, and I felt that this reflected the amazing amount of passion and compassion I felt while writing these poems. I try to describe poems as if they were real entities, and I see nature around me as beautiful.

About the Author

My early life was shaped by the loss of my father to an untimely death when I was only four. Left a widow, my mother worked three jobs to keep body and soul together, and I owe her deep thanks for her focus on my education and for her marriage to my stepfather, a wonderful man. In my adult life, I earned a master’s and a doctorate and served as a social worker. Poetry has always been my avocation. My life would not have been complete without my children, both adopted and both beautiful and talented in their own ways. In late middle age, I became a minister in the Church of Religious Science, and I retired at age seventy-five. I have dealt with Parkinson’s disease for over thirty-one years, and I thank my editor for her persistence and attention to detail so that this work could become possible.