Frances Richey: Motherly Hardships

A corporate business- woman turned poet, Frances Richey has recently published her second collection of poems titled The Warrior. As her first book, The Burning Point, it has already received wide critical acclaim. Fueled by strong feelings toward her beloved son who was deployed to fight in Iraq, she began to write an anthology of poems to express her emotions. Her poetry is moving and at times tear jerking, leading one to question how Richey could have become such a magnificent poet after working in an absolutely non-creative profession. Nonetheless, Frances Richey has become a prolific and successful artist in her field.
Richey’s talent for writing poetry was not one that she was aware of until later on in her life. After leaving the highly stressful corporate world, she began to work with people who suffer from fatal sicknesses. As a way to deal with the emotional pains of becoming attached to some of these patients and then letting go after their untimely deaths, the organization held poetry groups for their employees. It was here that Richey discovered her talent for the art of poetry and decided to take it to the next level. After enrolling in a few higher-level courses in poetry writing, Richey embarked on a journey of writing her own anthology.
It is clear that family is Richey’s favorite subject of writing. Her first book was mostly about her father who had passed away, and her second about the hardships she went through as her only son was deployed to Iraq. Her poetry is easy to read, as the lines flow smoothly from one place in her aching heart to the next. After reading some of her work, such as “Life Could End in a Snap” and “One Week Before Deployment”, we can really see how heartfelt and beautiful the poems are. Whether she portrays the scenario of her son packing his bags and the ensuing sadness as he leaves the house, or the excited anticipation of his arrival back home, Richey saturates each and every line with emotion.
Artistic ability is sometimes difficult to discover within us. One might take a completely different path in life until he or she finds this innate ability. We must not wonder how Frances Richey went from being a corporate-business woman to an acknowledged and successful poet. Instead, we should enjoy and indulge ourselves in the beautiful and sensational poetry that she has written.