The end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 have been difficult. My sister, Libby, lost her beloved husband, Martti, after a sudden and rapid progression of Martti’s MS. After almost two weeks in the hospital, he came home to hospice mid-December. He passed away on January 8th. Martti’s presence in all our lives is deeply missed.

Libby and Martti were soulmates. They were married for over thirty years. Their love story is one for the ages. You can learn more about it in this brief YouTube video. What stands out is the deep love they had for each other, and how they approached all their challenges with humor.

A few years after Libby and Martti married, Martti was diagnosed with MS. I don’t recall exactly when he started using a power wheelchair fulltime, but it was at least fifteen years ago. I loved having a brother-in-law that always saw me eye-to-eye and that I could kvetch with about the lack of wheelchair access and basic services. We also laughed a lot together despite our frustrations.

Martti was the kindest person I ever met and also the most upbeat when he had every reason not to be. A few weeks before he died, I got into an accident when a woman driving an SUV tried to illegally pass the car in front of hers and slammed into my rampvan. Home, in hospice and barely able to speak, Martti asked to see the photos of the damage to my van.

Martti used to be a master mechanic and worked on high end exotic cars. When his MS got too bad, he had to close his business. But he never lost his love of cars. Drawing on his knowledge and old connections, he gave me advice about what to do and where to take my van for repairs. Mind you he was literally on his deathbed at the time. Most people would be focusing on themselves.

The car accident shook me up, and I did get hurt in it, but think I’ve almost recovered after two months. My van is repaired now, though giving it up for a week caused all kinds of logistical problems. I can’t simply rent a car, so I was homebound for I thought would be a week. It ended up being a few days shorter because the auto body shop prioritized my repairs.

On top of everything mentioned, I got COVID again after just having it in October.

It's easy to be overwhelmed when any one thing upsets your daily life, let alone one problem after another. I find a way to get through these rough times is to write poetry. As you can imagine, many of the poems I’ve written during this period are about death and loss. Though, I was privileged to read a poem I’d written about Martti at his service.

Since Martti died, I keep thinking about how sad my sister is and have tried to write persona poems to help deal with all her grief. At some point, I’ll share them with her. Now, when the loss is barely bearable, is not the time. But the poems are helping me. And I know that writing them is allowing me be present with her in her grief. And isn't that what we all want when we suffer such a loss. Someone to be there with us and acknowledge our pain.

The promise of rebirth is just around the corner, made even more imminent as the groundhog didn’t see his shadow. While this period has been difficult, it is a time that I am reminded of how precious life is in all its states. We must embrace it all, what we perceive as good and as bad, because the combination of both is what creates the power and beauty of our time on planet Earth.

I’d love to hear from you about times poetry has helped you deal with and explore different emotions. Leave me a comment and share some poems if you like.

Be well and keep writing.

Happy to report that my poetry book, Recalibrating Gravity, a memoir in verse, won When Words Count Pitch Week 28th. Today I received my gold medal from When Words Count and a lovely note from Steve Eisner, the founder of the WWC Pitch Week Competition. I was the first poet to win gold! To read more about it click here: Announcing Pitch Week XXVIII Winner: Mary Keating! | When Words Count Retreat
We had a great group of competitors and according to Steve were “the finest group of competitors” of Pitch Week ever. I was honoured to be a part of this group and hope to see all the manuscripts in print next year. Woodhall Press plans to publish my book next Summer.
You may be wondering, what is this competition and how do I join in?
Here’s the link to apply: Pitch Week | When Words Count Retreat.
The competition is a novel way to secure a traditional publishing contract while learning how to best package your book and market it. The seminar is divided into two weeks. Once you are chosen to be a contestant, you will send your manuscript off to their editor. I worked with Peggy Moran, who helped me polish my poetry. Next, Steve schedules an introductory meeting, where you get to meet the other contestants and learn how the competition works. You also learn what to expect from the two full weeks you will spend workshopping (Meet the Judges Week [MTJ]) and presenting (Pitch Week [PW]). This introductory meeting usually happens about two weeks before MTJ.
MTJ is an exciting time where you not only collaborate with the other contestants and two coaches to choose the best passages to read from your book but work one-on-one with the three Judges chosen from the publishing arena along with your coaches. Usually one judge is a publicist, one an agent, and one a publisher.
​I was lucky to work with publicist, Steve Rohr, agent Marilyn Atlas, and publishing house, Woodhall Press. During that time, they will guide you in developing your book cover, obtaining blurbs from writers and famous people, how to best present why you are the right person to have written your book, how to best package your book, and how to market it.
Once MTJ week is over, you will send in your final manuscript. Over the next six weeks or so, you will finalize your cover, marketing plan, packaging, and presentations. Once PW arrives, you will have a few more times to workshop with your coaches and contestants.
The rest of the week you spend presenting to the judges en banc. The last day, you read to a wider audience who will vote on which two books they would most likely choose to buy. The winner of that voting gets the People’s Choice Award. (My book won that award as well.)
That same evening, Steve will torture you with a blow-by-blow accounting of how each contestant did in each category. If your race is as close as mine, you will need to be close to a phone just in case 911 is needed as your heart beats with ever increasing intensity.
A few days after the contest, you will all meet with the publisher, and if you are lucky, they will publish your book. The winner is guaranteed a publishing contract and gets the best publishing terms. But win or lose, the experience is invaluable.
There is a cost to the program. You can find out about the going rates when you apply. You can also work with their book cover artist. I believe they give contestants special rates. Asha Hossain created two amazing covers for me, and I still wish I could use both.
My next steps now are to review my publishing contract, finalize my manuscript, and begin working with the fabulous Woodhall Press in preparation of publishing my book the Summer of 2024. I’m so very excited to bring my poetry to the world. The cover of the lovely card Steve Eisner sent me says it all.

Welcome! I hope you find my website a place where we can explore life and poetry together.

I write poetry because I love its versatility. I love how it uses sight and sound together to convey multiple meanings. Poetry imbues words with the power to speak to our souls.

Poetry sometimes gets a bad reputation. Perhaps that's from all those teachers who didn't make it come alive. But as Billy Collins so aptly put, poetry is the history of the human heart. How amazing is that!


This year marks my fiftieth anniversary of using a wheelchair. I was in a car accident when I was young, and my life turned upside down. But with the help of my family, friends, and the philosophy of one day at a time, I became a lawyer, a poet, scuba diver, world traveler, wife, and happy. As we get to know each other, you'll find out how I got my life back on track. Not that I'm not thrown off every once in a while. We all are. But basically, I've an amazing life.

My brother, David, and I were talking today about how people love to put others in categories. She's disabled, he's gay, they're transgender, he's black, etc. Groups are great when we need to advocate for ourselves. They give us power. On the flip side, we all want to be known for just us, the person we are and not the label we've been given. If we never see past those labels, we miss out on so much. And if we box ourselves and our expectations up inside those labels, we miss out on our potential.

So, here, let's rip off those labels, take a close look at them, and then tear up what holds us back.

To acknowledge people and things that help us through life, I've created a page where we can post gratitude haikus. For those of you who don't know, a haiku is a three-line poem where the first and third lines are 5 syllables, and the middle line is seven. The first two lines usually state something and the last line is a turn. I've posted two on the wall for examples.

In closing, I'd like to thank my good friend, Alison McBain who is a writer and poet among many of her other hats. She helped me get started with this site. In fact, she's been a great mentor in helping me get poems published and finish my first full length poetry book, Recalibrating Gravity. I'm one of five finalists in When Words Count Pitch Week because of her encouragement. We all need an Alison in our lives. So dear Alison, thank you!

That's it for now. Drop me a line or a haiku. And off we go...