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"In Diane Schetky’s fourth book of poetry, Looking Back: New & Selected Poems, she takes us exploring far-off places, including the Arctic and Antarctica. In free verse, Schetky shares concerns about climate change and aging and her enthusiasm for nature and wildlife. She notes, “nature bestows daily gifts upon those whose eye and ears are ready to receive them.”
As an octogenarian with early Alzheimer’s, Schetky worries about her losses. She began assembling some of her older poems to save memories of the past and reflect and share them with friends and readers. The selection “Unfolding” reveals her background and a flow of eclectic compositions, old and new follows. The end of the book focuses on finding serendipity in a changing world. "There is rich retrospection here as Schetky looks back on a life of challenges and rewards. Her connection to nature once more shines through, whether it is geese golfing or right whales in the wrong climate. Birds are a special love, from the swallow to the great blue heron. There are travel vignettes and tributes to favorite trees and her beloved aged Isabel with her 'senior citizen dog treats.' Schetky faces personal and world setbacks with compassion and grace—and humor (read “Apology to my Hair”). Take pleasure and solace in her verse." —Carl Little, author of Ocean Drinker: New and Selected Poems |
About the Author
Diane Schetky MD came to poetry later in life. Schetky is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College ’61 and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine ’66. She distinguished herself in the career of child and forensic psychiatry. After retirement, she was a Hospice volunteer for twenty years and ran a bereavement group at Maine State Prison for eight years. She used poetry to get the inmates to open up, and they did. She decided that if prisoners could express themselves in writing that she should give it a try. Her world began to open. She honed her poetry in several workshops at Sarah Lawrence College. More recently, Schetky volunteered as a docent at the Peary MacMillan Arctic Museau at Bowdoin College, where she enjoyed giving tours for children. |
