Meet Author & Poet Debbie Richard:
Nominated as a top-3 Finalist for Myrtle Beach Poet Laureate, 2024
Debbie Richard’s collection Crosswinds is aptly named, as the poems examine the constant tensions between the superficial and what lies beneath. Tranquil and beautiful nature contrasts with all the turmoil and uncertainty of people’s lives; our inner world is often at great odds with the outer one. But Richard urges us to always “Look skyward toward the heavenly light.”
~Rita Sims Quillen, author of WAYLAND and SOME NOTES YOU HOLD, is a three time Pushcart Prize nominee, a songwriter and musician, and the recipient of the Outstanding Poetry Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association.
This collection of poetic works articulates crosswinds that result in the aerodynamics of how we maneuver through life, whether we land or keep flying to reach a point on the compass. Crosswinds takes the reader on a tour of poems from the unveiling on a wedding night, to a father’s disguise, a Sunday afternoon in the park, to a towering rough exterior trying to break one’s shell, to the elegance of A Measure of Grace. Overcoming difficulty transports us further than we dared to go.
Dayspring
To never tire of the crashing waves
upon the distant shore,
Or watch the great ball of fire
arise from a blue abyss,
Like a tangled web of seaweed
Pulls creatures from the ocean floor,
Look skyward toward the Heavenly light
and be clothed in the warmth of nature's kiss.