Silence, Inhabited: Poetic Reflections on Surviving Childhood Sexual Abuse

Rich Follett has recently returned to writing poetry after a thirty-year hiatus. He lives in the sacred and timeless Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he joyfully teaches English and Theatre Arts for high school students. His poems have appeared in numerous contemporary journals and e-zines including BlazeVox, Paraphilia, Exercise Bowler, Calliope Nerve, Sugar Mule, Four Branches Press and Counterexample Poetics, for which he is a Featured Artist. He is the co-author of Responsorials (with Constance Stadler). Most recently, his haiku/photo combination Aurora's Adieu received first place honors in the first international iPoetry Poe-Tography Competition.

Reviews

“As a survivor, it removed that barrier in my heart that kept me from seeing men as my brothers in a shared legacy. As a poet, Follett, reminds me of what we are meant to do. I'm following you, brother, and I'm listening.”

     - Lisa Alvarado, poet, novelist, author of Raw Silk Suture and Sister Chicas

“This is a poetry of conclusions, not interrogation. While the fashionable Mei-mei Berssenbrugge writes a long line so the reader cannot keep the whole line in his mind, Rich Follett terminally shortens his and thus becomes accessible.”

    - Duane Locke, author of 21 books of poetry and recipient of The Edna St. Vincent Millay Prize, The Charles Agnoff Award, and The Poetry Society of America’s Walt Whitman Award

“As a poet, Rich Follett is a chronological genius. In this, his collection of poems, Silence, Inhabited, Follett himself self-summarizes these poems in a word: surviving”

    - Felino A. Soriano, author of 21 collections of poetry, including Variant Tongues of the Conjunctive Application

“Follett shatters the silence, without losing any of that expressiveness or wonder. Following a phoenix paradigm, Follett constructs flawless monuments to sound from the beautiful, bursting bones of the ruins he rises from; the result is an epic symphony heavy on emphatic truth and refreshingly bereft of the gossamer falsehoods that often compromise such bright flights. “

     -William Crawford, author of Fire in the Marrow and Pushcart Prize nominee.

“A stunningly deep dive into the psychological scar tissue of abuse. A soldiering in the cause of self preservation and reclamation. Warrior brave, purely painful and full of victory. Abuse has its most profound adverse emotional impact when left to fester deep in the soul's soil. This collection of poetry is an outline for the redemption of victims of abuse to the ends of going in as fully as the Word can go, and digging it out.”

    - Dan Kellett, poet, spoken word artist and track producer, music reviewer and radio show host

“For me, Rich Follett is everything a poet should be, bold in words, thoughts and honesty; skillful and artistic yet so accessible. The challenge he takes on here is brave beyond words. He explores and defeats the abuse he has suffered and emerges stronger, as does anyone who reads these stunning poems.”

    - Si Philbrook, poet, published in several journals including Poetry (UK)