REVIEWS & ARTICLES

Record Searchlight (Daily Newspaper), Redding, CA
April 10, 2005, Article



Pouring Out Poems -
Writer Finds Verse Works for Personal Expression
By Betty Lease

Patricia Wellingham-Jones leads a writer's life and is grateful for the opportunity. She writes when she wants, as much as she wants and doesn't rely on it for income. Inspired by her surroundings, unhindered by a daily job and aided by an unending interest in people and the world, Wellingham-Jones turns out poem after poem of free verse.

"I can't stop writing," she said one recent morning while sitting in her Los Molinos kitchen. "I will be writing with my finger on the inside of my casket when they lower me into the ground."

Wellingham-Jones is primarily a poet, but the 66-year-old has an impressive resume. At various points in her life, she's driven a school bus, been a registered nurse, earned a Ph.D. in psychology and worked as a handwriting analyst and document examiner. She owns her own publishing company and is considered an expert on ivy. On two different occasions, she's had back surgery. In the late 1990s, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy.

With her 88-year-old husband, Roy Jones, Wellingham-Jones lives in a picturesque setting on the banks of Mill Creek in Los Molinos. Giant sycamores gracefully shade the front of the house that was built in 1912 and remodeled in 1958. Willingly, lovingly, she shows off her home with rooms that still bear the style of the 1950's transformation. The large, sturdy home suits the couple.

Her varied life has taken many turns, and at each, opportunity has presented itself, she says. "There's a lot of serendipity in my life," she says. "Sure, I've written all my life. As a 10-year-old who ran out of horse stories at the local library, I started writing my own," she said. During her life, she put together a cookbook and contributed to academic journals, served as editor of "Ivy Journal" (an American Ivy Society publication) and wrote for a nursing journal. She penned a book on local barns and has written family histories. "I've had a lot of interests and acted on them. I'm so thankful to have had such an interesting ride," she says.

Before her spinal surgery in 1992, she hadn't even considered writing poetry. "It wasn't anything that especially interested me," she said. But poetry began bubbling up from within, and she wrote down her thoughts and observations. In the beginning, she said her poems weren't very good.

Wellingham-Jones' poetry has appeared in numerous online magazines and anthologies, including those she has published through her own PWJ Publishing. She's won poetry contests and is a perennial honoree at the Shasta College Poetry Festival. One recent project is a breast cancer poster that features her poem, "Don't Turn Away" and a commissioned charcoal drawing. The woman depicted has only one breast. Wellingham-Jones hopes it will be welcome in doctors' offices and other places where breast cancer is discussed. In addition, she offers a small booklet of 20 poems on breast cancer. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I imagine it will have a life of its own. I just stand back and watch," she said.

Seeing what happens is part of the thrill for Wellingham-Jones. For instance, some of her poems have been printed numerous times: "Orange Ribbons," about Dunsmuir high school students' reaction to the 9/11 tragedy has been printed about 18 times, and "The Cleanest War in History," has seen a dozen printings.

She belongs to two critique groups in Chico that meet monthly. She also belongs to the Writers Forum in Redding.

Like her comfortable house, poetry meets her needs. "Poetry is so rich and rewarding. It's one of the most intensely personal ways to express yourself," she said. "A poem should say something; it's not just wordplay. It can be funny and outrageous, as well as wrenching and deep, but it should touch the listener (or reader) in some core way."



Selected Book Reviews

On Don't Turn Away
Wings Online, Review by Pamela Malone, June 3, 2001

"Poetry is often at its best when dealing with difficult subjects. On the other hand, some people think just because something bad happened to them they can write a poem — not true! But in skilled hands, poetry is often the only way to get to the heart of pain. Patricia Wellingham-Jones’ chapbook (21 pages) details her discovering a malignant lump in her breast, the biopsy, subsequent surgery and recovery. The poems are short, simple and sharp, with an arrow that goes right for the target, with powerful imagery."  -Wings Online (see complete review: fourth review listed, pdf file)


On Belt of Transit

"I love your Belt of Transit poems. They flow together beautifully. Congratulations to you and Roy on that. There are some poems in it that I had not read before, “Passport” being my absolute favorite. Charming poem (charming man)! I’m proud to be associated with this little fanny pack of travel poems, destined now for its own trips in the real world of book-held readings."  -Ellaraine Lockie


On Don’t Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer

by Tim Scannell in Big City Lit: New York edition, The Frank Review, and Chiron Review
by R.D. Armstrong in Lummox Journal, March 2001
by Kara L.C. Jones in Kota Press Poetry Journal, October 2003
by Sylvia Rosen in Poetix, October 2004
by Dr. Esther Altschul Helfgott in Kota Press Loss Journal, October 2004
Seattle Writergrrls, 2004


On A Gathering Glance

by Ellaraine Lockie in the online and print journal Poesy.


On Voices on the Land

by Tom Goff in Poetry Now, newsletter of the Sacramento Poetry Center, October 2004