Quarters: Poetic Dwelling

Poems are riddles with their own solutions tucked inside. They are lenses through which ideas converge and then diverge again. They are thresholds between rooms built by conscious and unconscious processes.

Quarters is a poetic dwelling in four parts. The title of each section is a riddle of sorts, conveying multiple meanings. The poems in that section explore the dynamics of those meanings.

1. Love*s In/Verse
2. In/Voluntary Realities
3. I*m/Paired
4. Quest(ion)s

Our words live. They shape us, as surely as we shape them. They dwell within us and we dwell within them.

Shea R. Van Rhoads is a writer, artist, teacher, researcher, humanitarian, entrepreneur, mother, wife, home-maker, and dog-lover. Her poetry probes heart, mind, culture, and spirit. She gives voice to the depth, complexity, irony, nuance, and humor lurking in those "quarters." She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard where she studied physics, African studies, and religion. She received her Master's Degree in Teaching from Simmons. Ms. Van Rhoads is passionate about learning and education. She has taught in a variety of settings throughout the US and Africa. She has worked in neuroscience research to elucidate the neural mechanisms of learning. She has been an advocate and fundraiser to provide better educational opportunities for orphans in Africa. In 2006, Ms. Van Rhoads co-founded the nonprofit Temwani Children's Foundation to help build a primary school for orphans in Zambia.