She has been writing poetry ever since she got her first computer more than 30 years ago. Her poetic heroes are Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, Martin Espada and Emily Dickinson. As an English teacher, she encouraged her students at New Britain High School and the University of Connecticut to write poetry. She served as a Teacher Consultant with the Connecticut Writing Project, Storrs. She was honored to have poems published by Bard College, the University of Connecticut, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Her poem, “Literalism – as hard to get rid of as bittersweet and poison ivy” was granted a Polly Bond Award of Excellence for Episcopal Communicators in 2008.
She is a member of the Vestry of St. Mark’s Episcopal
Church, New Britain, Senior Warden Emerita, Liturgical Assistant, Prayer
Shawl Knitter, instigator of the Poetry Corner, and member of the
Higher Education Committee of the Diocese of Connecticut. She read General Ordination Exams (GOEs). In 2011 she inaugurated a "Poetry
Sunday" at St. Mark's. Local poets read their work during the adult
forum and she worked with the parish rector, the Rev. Pat Hames, to have
poetry woven into the liturgy of the main worship service.
Barbara holds two degrees from the University of
Connecticut, one from Central Connecticut State University and is a
member of the Class of 1964 of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, the
second class to include women.
In May of 2012 Barbara was invited by Connecticut's Episcopal bishops to be the "Diocesan Poet."
"We invited Barbara to tap into our inner poet and claim a creative expression of our faith," said Bishop Laura J. Ahrens, who took the lead on this effort. "By calling her 'Diocesan Poet' we hope she'll help all of us, as a diocese, to claim our collective poetic voices," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment