The heart of the poet …

 As a teenager and again as a young adult, I floundered in the world of poetry, not yet able to understand the true power of the art. I no longer attempt to excel in this medium. I am still a lover of the poet, the lingerings of the great muse that grabs us by the throat and sends our hearts soaring or our emotions plummeting into the depth of the “word.”

In one word, the poet can express volumes. It is with great pleasure I present to you my friend and teacher, Janice Indeck.

Afterlife in Paradise

A tree netted by the sun at noon
Leaves quiver in want
Of ancillary vagabond release

Sculptured by lost limbs
Full figured pose reclaimed, sends
Growth reaching compass points
Of blind and ruddy birth.

 ANTONIA PHILLIPS RABB’s poetry has been culled from the richness of her life in New England, transplanted to South Florida where it continues to flourish. It is this love of the word, the sounds of the muse, which inspires and delights her readers.

An alumnus of Mt. Holyoke College and a member of The New England Poetry Club, she attended Boston University and became a protégé of the late Professor, John Holmes, who held the poetry seat at Tufts University.

Her joy has been inspiring the works of others, some of whom had never written before. In this, she has been a facilitator in many creative writing groups in Broward County libraries and Community Centers as she had done in her native Boston.

Upon moving to Florida, her teaching career resumed, as she became the facilitator of creative writing groups in the libraries and Community Centers of South Florida. Ms. Rabb is a mother of six married children and the grandmother of seventeen. She is dedicated to the writing of memoirs, the writings compiled for families, answers to the questions children ask about those who came before them.

 As in My Lover’s Eyes*

When I see myself as in my lover’s eyes
My beauty spreads in folds before me
Bathed in warmth of ten thousand suns
I claim the Heavens, gather up the lakes and ponds
Dance among the trees and feast my gaze on grass forever green
amid the miracle of scented flowers
The gift he showers on my eager soul enriches every hour
And I walk the streets of Everywhere serene benevolent secure
As in a trance, captured in the safety of his extravagant delusion…  

Antonia Phillips Rabb
*To be sung in the heart of every bride everywhere in the world! 

She publishes under the name of Antonia Phillips Rabb, but we all know her as Janice, Jan or as her grandchildren call her, GranJan. Those who have been privileged to be in her writer’s groups have learned the most important lesson one can learn as a writer … To believe in yourself.

I went to keep a friend company, thinking I was not ready, and my work was not “good” enough to share with others. My friend quit in four months, I have been involved with her group for three years.

She has placed a candle in the window for the lonely traveler … and those of us who have seen this light shinning in the night have found a safe haven for our expressions, our passions and our dreams.

On her web page, it reads simply … The word unwritten is the thought unspoken

 A poet tells you of his life
in short lines of fewer words
than those spun like dedicated wool
for yarn in a telling purpose… the poet
is more brief. His words are burdened heavy
with misgivings promises and far-off mirrors of mirages.

Take the poet’s words as messages,
as memories stoked to blaze once more
an encore to the life you live and never saw
the way he tells it with his terse words.

Today I ask my readers:

Did your journey as a writer begin with the scribes of the poet?
Did you at one point, like myself, attempt this masterful craft?
 

Please leave your questions or comments for this week’s guest.

fOIS In The City

 

Visit her web page and enjoy the power of the word.