Stutters, A Book of Hope, is a collection of poems which reflect the author's experience of her own stuttering, from early life until now, blended with images of nature, speaking to what we all feel when something is different about us. These words tenderly connect with readers and listeners, as we all have ways we feel different and need to overcome something we can't hide.
Mary Ricketson’s published collections are I Hear the River Call My Name, Hanging Dog Creek, Shade and Shelter, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian, Keeping in Place, Lira, Poems of a Woodland Woman, and Precious the Mule. She won first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75th anniversary national poetry contest.
Ricketson's poems reflect the healing powers of nature, a path she follows from Appalachian tradition. She is a mental health therapist in private practice in Murphym NC and likes her writing groups, hiking mountain trails, and her garden of vegetables, flowers, and blueberries.
Reviews
Mary Ricketson’s new book of poems — Stutters –is accurate as a chickadee’s chirp or an arrow’s sting. The poet creates a legacy varied as the soil’s grains scattering from opening fingers.
Shelby Stephenson, poet laureate of North Carolina from 2015-2018. His recent books are Country and Praises.
Mary Ricketson’s book, Stutters, A Book of Hope, takes the reader through Ricketson’s journey of fear and frustration…. It’s honest and fascinating…. Ricketson’s courage and strength shine through the pages…. Families struggling in the shadows of stuttering will find hope in this collection of poems.
Brenda Kay Ledford, retired educator and author of: Blanche, Poems of a Blue Ridge Woman and Leatherwood Falls, Blue Ridge Mountain Poems
Mary Ricketson invokes the inner courage of a personal difference seeking to come to light. Her poetry warms our hearts with its raw passion and fear, its joys and sorrows. As told over the course of her lifetime, she shares her stories within the voice of a stutterer, bringing us into her realm…. Mary’s humility shines through in this book of poetry, as does her bravery, charm, and wit.
As a speech language pathologist with over 26 years of clinical practice, I can attest to Mary Ricketson’s hard-earned fluency today. As a colleague working with Mary with a local non-profit, I can attest to her dedication to women and to voices often not heard. Hearing Mary speak and recite her poetry is a time-stand-still kind of experience.
Emory E Prescott, PhD, MS,CCC-SLP, author of The Herbal Brain