Hickory – Redhawk Publications is proud to announce the release of “RAW: Poetry Wrung from a Still-Beating Heart” by Hickory author Rhonda Jean Bolton. The collection gathers poems shaped by moments from Bolton’s life, exploring emotions that linger long after the moments pass.
“RAW is a sometimes-haunting collection of some of the most intense and memorable moments of my life,” said Bolton. “I have always felt emotions strongly, and they not only linger, but they also remain. These raw emotions simmer in my heart and my brain, often for decades, before flowing into the poetry that I call raw.”
Bolton has written poetry since childhood, but RAW is her first published poetry collection. Her previous books include “Praying through Plies;” “Surviving Lupus,” “Levaquin, & Life;” and “A Family’s First Guide to Bipolar Disorder,” co-authored with her husband, Stan Bolton. Those works were educational, inspirational, and self-help in nature, while RAW turns inward, exposing vulnerabilities that draw from deeply personal experiences, memories, love, and loss.
Writing the collection brought many events back to the surface for Bolton.
“While sometimes cathartic, painful, and always heartfelt, I found myself remembering with awe how blessed I have been to experience the love that I have known and continue to experience,” she said.
Bolton believes the collection will resonate with readers who have experienced love and loss—perhaps even extraordinary love and extraordinary loss—as well as those who consider themselves “slaves to nostalgia” or who believe in the gift of random moments of magic.
A retired registered nurse and Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC), Bolton spent her career in nursing and still holds both her RN and professional counselor licenses. Her professional life has centered on care and healing, themes that also echo through a collection rooted in memory, feeling, grief, gratitude, and enduring love.
For more information on the book: https://tinyurl.com/RawByRhondaJeanBolton.
