Author and poet Kathryn Carole Ellison's twelve beautiful books of
poetry are a result of a lifetime of writing -- first as a journalist.
Then, because she had some life lessons to share with her children, she
chose poetry as a means of communicating.
Her books --
Celebrations, Heartstrings, Inspirations, Sanctuary, Awakenings,
Sojourns, Gratitude, Tapestry, Milestones, Beginnings, Horizons and
Moments
-- contain poems from a collection written over a span of 45 years. The
"Poems of Life and Love" are as fresh and relevant today as they were
when she first wrote them. She has also created a journal titled Gifts
of Life and Love.
Ellison began writing poetry for her children in the 1970s when they
were reaching the "age of reason," and she was leaving an abusive
marriage, becoming a single parent, and setting out on her own. She
wanted to share "life's lessons" and her "words of wisdom" with them.
Poetry was her way to communicate with her pre-teenage children to help
them make good decisions in life, without a barrage of words and
lectures that would fall on deaf ears.
And so, the Advent Poems began. Ellison gave her children one new poem a
day during Advent -- the 24 days in December leading up to Christmas.
More than 40 years later her grown children still look forward to each
Advent Season, and to receiving her poems. In total, Ellison has penned
more than 1,000 inspirational and wisdom-filled poems for living a more
joy-filled life and overcoming everyday challenges. "Children of the
Light" was among the early poems she wrote and it is included in each of
the twelve books in this collection. After writing hundreds of poems, it
is still one of her favorites. "Light," she explains, represented all
that was good and pure and right with the world, and she believed then
-- as she does today -- that those elements live in her children... and
perhaps in all of us. We need only to dare... and to reach for them.
After Ellison's second husband, Bill Ellison, founder of Value
Village/Savers Stores, died of Alzheimer's Disease in 2008, she decided
it was time to share her poetry with the world. In 2014, at the age of
75, she started a business and began the journey into the world of
publishing and fulfilling her life's purpose. Ellison wants to share the
message that it is never too late to pursue one's dreams. She believes
the philosophy that "you can be old at 30, or young at 90" -- that it's
all up to us.
And she believes there's no better time than now to share the poems with
the world at large. The present, broken world needs some good
old-fashioned lessons in civility, kindness, and common sense.
