Author Rebecca Fitton finds writing is healing

I’m pleased to introduce Rebecca Fitton and her new book of poetry, Wave Rider, as she embarks on her WOW! Women on Writing book tour.

Wave Rider is a poetic reflection of author Rebecca Fitton’s long journey to heal from sexual abuse, abandonment, and neglect, building a new world based on wholeness of body, mind, and spirit. Her journey has taken a lifetime. To use the metaphor of waves, sometimes the undertow nearly drowned her but she survived. Now her beautiful and profound book offers inspiration to others who have also suffered greatly from abuse.

Here’s my Review

Rebecca Fitton’s Wave Rider, a book of poetry, shares her beginnings as an abused child and her rebirth later in her adulthood. She divides her book of poems into three sections:

Darkness: her poems of her life with a mother who doesn’t want her and an uncle who abuses her. She lived in this frozen, silent darkness until she was forty years old. In a poem early in the book, she writes, I learn to breathe so no one can hear./I am still stuck in the black corner, to make herself invisible to her abuser and to the life she could not bear.

Between: where she writes poems about her therapy. She declared that she would heal herself. She writes: I walk in silence/and smile in gratitude for/my healers and teachers and/myself, and Only after the work does my brain quiet/my back relax and my breath deepen/into my interior peace.

Spaciousness: her move to Santa Fe where she found a sense of oneness with the earth, a healing community, and her singing voice. She writes: You come to Santa Fe to save your soul from/ mediocrity, hypocrisy, materialism, soul-less-ness and I did slay the dragon of silence/and now I sing.

I commend Ms. Fitton for finding poetry as a way to heal, similar to my experience after the suicide death of my son. Having some sort of creative outlet is so important to those who have been through any kind of tragedy.

Her poems are powerful and calm, revealing and inspiring, and most importantly, they are a good starting point for readers looking for ways to heal. Plus she encourages us all to write whether we think we’re talented or not. Rebecca Fitton wrote her first poem under a juniper tree in Santa Fe in 2008. Please keep writing, Rebecca.

Others Have Also Praised Rebecca’s Book

“Rebecca’s journey, delightfully presented through her sacred poetry, resonates with an archetypal journey shared by many. The intimacy of her sharing and beautifully aligned prose guides us into a state of consciousness where peace can be found. Her book is a delicious delving into the sacredness of individuation.” Melissa Pickett

“It is said that the longest journey begins with the first step. Truthfully, something precedes the first step: saying yes to the journey. In her book of poems, Rebecca invites us into her journey one that says a resounding yes to life and an emphatic no to abuse. Her voice found through poetry, Rebecca speaks with courage, determination, and delight. My life-journey is the richer after reading her poems.” Paul Chitwood, L.M.T.

“I have been reading Rebecca’s poetry for a few years now. Her choice of words in describing deep emotions, life’s challenges, and pivotal awareness-evoking experiences creates for me a rich and expansive tapestry of multidimensional memories, feelings, and a desire to explore further within myself issues and life mysteries raised by her poetry.” Emily M. Smith 

About Rebecca

Rebecca Pott Fitton explored different places and professional work. She grew up in Delaware and went to college in upstate New York. After graduating from Keuka College, she earned an M.A. in international relations at the University of Delaware. Then she headed to Michigan for careers in urban planning and health-care administration and an MBA from the University of Detroit. She continued working in health care in Ohio and retired as president of CareView Home Health in Middletown, Ohio. Retirement can be a busy time. Fitton brought her business acumen to service on five nonprofit boards. After her husband, Richard, died, she realized that the time had come to remake herself. As the lyrics of the song go, I’d built a life wrapped so tight it was strangling me. Freedom was a spirit call from Santa Fe, New Mexico.