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“Writing has saved my life a thousand times.” While many might take this as figurative speech, reading and writing poetry have done just this, and so much more for me. If I were not a writer, I am certain my life would not be as fruitful and rewarding. Ultimately, I am dedicated to growing in my passion and craft. I am committed to creating literature that enhances critical thought, while promoting empathy and understanding across race, religion, cultures and so on.
Since I was seven years old, I have been writing short stories, plays, novels, essays and poetry.
My work took an unexpected turn, however, when I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and bipolar
disorder in March 2016, only a year after graduating from college.
Rather than let my diagnoses defeat my desire to write, I turned to the notebook. In one year, my first self-published poetry book was completed and released. My first poetry book catered to mental health issues, as I used poetry to share my challenges to rise above pain.
As more people support my efforts to help spread mental health awareness through my work, helping others continues to help me.
So, while people might think it is a figure of speech when I say, “Writing has saved my life a thousand times,” the reality is anything but that. Writing has pushed me to not only recognize my own potential, but help others to do the same.
Reviewed by Gisela Dixon for Readers' Favorite
Dreams of Falling by Ranequa Kelley-Boyd is a collection of poems that are autobiographical in nature in the sense that they all come from Ranequa’s own life experiences. Dreams of Falling starts off with an introduction about Ranequa herself and a little bit about her background of growing up as a black woman in America, as an only child of a single parent, and dealing with mental illness, identity crisis, and racism in American society. The poems are grouped into smaller collections and each collection is presented in its own chapter with a brief summary from Ranequa about where they are coming from and her life experiences about that particular topic. Although each chapter contains poems relating to a specific topic or period in her life, they are grouped such that each chapter can be read independently of the other.
Dreams of Falling by Ranequa Kelley-Boyd is a very readable collection and I thought that the poems were all genuinely well composed with an artistic feel to them. They are lyrical and the words seem to flow naturally. I also liked the fact that they highlight in a candid way the issues in our society: namely, the stigma surrounding mental illnesses, battling with depression and coming to terms with society’s lack of understanding of it, racial discrimination, and the specific issues that young, black women face in American society in particular. All of this is addressed through the poetry in a heartfelt way. I very much enjoyed this collection and would recommend it.
