Who Is Rhonda Ward??

Rhonda Ward is a poet who has lived in New London for almost five years. Her first six months in the Whaling City were spent in a private, little house tucked a bit from the riverfront on Pequot Avenue. She didn't know much about New London beyond the way to the highway and the same route in reverse. That changed one summer night when she read that there would be an open poetry reading downtown. She decided to participate.

The poet Rhonda Ward cares about her craft. She lives for the written word spoken aloud. She promotes poetry as an essential, accessable art form and not only her own poems, but all poems. She believes in poetry's power to provoke and cause postitive change. For reasons mysterious even to her, she is drawn to poetry's pull of profound ideas put well. She believes in the power of speech and feeling.

The poet Rhonda Ward believes in bringing poetry to the people; not only her own poems, but all poems. She is a writer and a performer who publishes and travels widely. She is a carrier of the poetry germ. She knows many fellow writers with voices that run from the erudite to the street savvy. The poet Rhonda Ward is not only out to promote her own work, but the work of everyone who feels poetry's tug. To this end, she organizes gatherings of poets to read to the general public. She attracts some of the best and most of the brightest to her events. She has become a poetry impressario.

Four and a half years ago, the poet Rhonda Ward read in the newspaper that there would be an open poetry reading downtown. She went to the appointed place at the advertised time and no one knew what she was talking about but a gentleman who was also there for the same reason. Rather than get angry, the poet Rhonda Ward and her new companion read to each other on the Bulkley House deck while enjoying a Campari and soda and a plate of escargot.

The poet Rhonda Ward learned that, while nothing works out as planned in New London, everything works out fine. The two are still friends, helping and supporting the other's passion. They are two writers encouraging each other to do what they do best even better.