Step into the imagination of Rita Hanner-Ward

Her Poetic Awakening is an expanding series, a collection of poetry tracing a woman’s inner journey through memory, mourning, revelation, and the quiet triumphs of being alive. Each book stands on its own, yet together they form a living tapestry—one that continues to grow as new volumes explore love, resilience, and the luminous moments that shape a life.

Her Inconvenient Elegy: A Life in Fragments begins the awakening with poems that sift through the fragments of memory and the rituals of survival. These pieces embrace the rawness of grief, the absurdity of daily life, and the fragile hope that flickers in the aftermath of loss. It is an elegy that refuses ornament, choosing instead the honesty of what it means to endure.

Her Song of Sorrows: A Quiet Mourning in Verse deepens the emotional landscape, transforming mourning into music. Each poem becomes a tender, unguarded song—one that acknowledges the ache of endings while offering companionship to anyone navigating their own shadows. Here, sorrow is not a destination but a passage toward unexpected beauty.

As Her Poetic Awakening series continues to unfold, future volumes will widen the lens, celebrating not only what breaks us but what restores us. These forthcoming books will explore love in its many forms, the quiet joys that sustain us, and the epiphanies that arrive when we least expect them. Together, they invite readers into a poetic awakening of their own—an ever‑evolving recognition that life’s deepest truths are found in both its sorrows and its light.