POETRY
Bedding Vows
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The late distinguished American poet, Hayden Carruth, wrote of native Mainer, Patricia Ranzoni's first collection, "Her poems have the pizzazz that real country speakers, close to earth and to each other, invent all the time. At the same time, her good sense and wise feeling are womanly in the finest sense and her pleasure in this is evident. Her voice adds significantly to the imaginative expressiveness of New England."
All of the poems in the 105 page book have been chosen for inclusion by editors of paper and electronic journals and collections across the U.S. and abroad; and Ranzoni's work is drawn from for classes in writing and history in Maine schools and colleges. This is an adult book, according to Ranzoni, who says these poems grew up in Maine. Beyond fiction and limerick, stereotype and speculation, here's an authentically imaginative account of how some Maine folk live in love with nature, from youth through old age, until and after they die. To catch lifetimes of physical and spiritual devotion in reverent and irreverent poetry is both natural and rare. No one before now, here, has done it this way – a cultural document as well as bedside reader – to cherish for generations. |
"Since I was like 'the boy riding his bike by to tread his uncle's hay,' I can corroborate the down home truth in Patricia Ranzoni's earthy, amusing, and powerful poetry in Bedding Vows. Pat
always writes movingly about the two great human needs of love and work and how they go together. Whether about the making of buck neck stew, buying a mermaid for the bird bath, eating haddock sandwiches, or celebrating a couple still madly in love after years of marriage, Ranzoni's great love for her husband, family, farm, and Downeast heritage are well on display in this wonderfully readable and re-readable collection." – Sanford Phippen, lifelong Mainer, University of Maine English instructor, writers of Maine historian, author of The Police Know Everything, People Trying to be Good, and Kitchen Boy. |
Documenting the cultures of her people, her work, published across the United States and abroad, is drawn from for courses and archives of Maine's writers and history, as well as class and disability studies. In 2002 she was the first poet from the northern chain to be invited to read her work at the annual “Women of Appalachia” conference at Ohio University Zanesville. In 2011 she was one of four representing the Maine Folklife Center’s “Maine’s Farmer Poets” reading at the American Folk Festival in Bangor; and in 2012 she was invited to read at the gala commemorating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Edna St. Vincent Millay at Whitehall Inn in Camden, was named the first Poet Laureate of
the University of Maine Class of 1962, had poems chosen by Maine’s Poet Laureate
Wesley McNair for his “Take Heart” newspaper columns, and was invited as one of
the featured readers in his “Poetry Express” (through Maine)
series.
the University of Maine Class of 1962, had poems chosen by Maine’s Poet Laureate
Wesley McNair for his “Take Heart” newspaper columns, and was invited as one of
the featured readers in his “Poetry Express” (through Maine)
series.
