Of Time and Tides

“Guillard’s poems have a sense of ‘being there’, offering a simple meditation on the subtleties of life. Universal messages, Guillard says, is how she connects with her readers.” “ Guillard caresses words into poems, weaving colorful landscapes …” From an interview by Ryan Leighton, staff reporter, The Boothbay Register

Ruth Fredericks Guillard was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1931. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952 with a BFA degree after majoring in music in the Department of Fine Arts. Guillard has had a career in the New England area as a performing musician, (voice and recorder), specializing in Renaissance and Baroque music. In 1974, she became a certified teacher of the Transcendental Meditation Program and has taught TM in Massachusetts, Maine, Russia and Armenia. Of Time and Tides is her third book of poetry, following From Burnham Cove and On a Fair Wind. Her work also appears in Take Heart, an anthology of Maine poets collected by Wesley McNair, Maine's poet laureate. She and her husband, Dr. Robert Guillard, live in an 1820 farmhouse on Burnham Cove in Boothbay, Maine. The family includes three sons, five grandchildren and a succession of "shelter" dogs.