This month, I published what is my 10th poetry collection. Best of Me: New & Selected Poetry marks the occasion by beginning with about 100 new poems and then picks up in part two with the best poetry from the past 20+ years.
As I examined this collection I noticed something interesting. Despite honestly describing hardship I have faced including my infertility struggle, grief, the weight of bad decisions, and so on, it’s all tied together with hope.
It caused me to reflect on the things that have influenced me over the course of my life. Setting aside the obvious things like my family and faith, I recall that even as a child I admired people who faced adversity with hope, cheerfulness and grace. My two fictional childhood influences who remain to this day are Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables and Maria from The Sound of Music. Anne was a rejected orphan, unloved, passed around, overlooked, but still a dreamer, still choosing the best everyday. Maria was forced out into the world to face a frightening reality set before her where she “had confidence in confidence alone” and faced it with grace, won people with her warmth, and faced challenges with a hopeful courage.
And I see these influences in all of my writing.
Please check out my collection Best of Me, which is truly the best of me, the best of my attitude, the best of my hope, and the best of my work.
Anna Farley 