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Rich Follett is a High School English, Theatre, and Mythology teacher who has been writing poems and songs for more than 35 years. His poems have been featured in numerous online and print journals, including BlazeVox, The Montucky Review, Paraphilia, Leaf Garden Press and CounterExample Poetics, for which he is a featured artist. Two volumes of poetry, Responsorials (with Constance Stadler) and Silence, Inhabited, are available through NeoPoiesis Press (www.neopoiesispress.com). A third volume with NeoPoiesis, Human &c., will be released early in 2013. He lives with his wife Mary Ruth Alred Follett in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he also pursues his interests as a professional actor, singer/songwriter, playwright and director.
Reviewed by Gayani Hathurusingha for Readers' Favorite
"Silence, Inhabited" by Rich Follett contains poems which are like aching nerves, exposed to the reader. The poems are highly autobiographical and deal with a common but less controversial theme: childhood sexual abuse. Having been a pathetic victim of abuse in his childhood, Follett is engaged in a flash back, an adult narrator reconciling with his childhood memories. The poems are rich in their humane value as they consider the nature, the sufferings and even the backlogs related to childhood sexual abuse. If you want to have a glimpse into the ocean of torments undergone by an abused child, read Follett's poetry.
The poems, written in the form of free verse, focus on the bitter experiences from the poet's past and the incidents are depicted mainly through images. They highlight the idea that of all the attachments, attachment to memory is the worst. The physical manipulation and the psychological trauma related to that, presented as he felt them as a victim, are strong enough to make the reader sympathize with all the victims of childhood abuse. The poems are highly progressive, even though they deal with a sordid theme, as the poet depicts his struggle to survive through the absurdities that he had to undergo. He sets an example to the individuals from similar situations of life, conveying the message that there is still a chance of recovering from the pain of ancient scars. The optimistic approach that the poems try to gain, despite the bitterness of the past, increases the artistic quality of the writing.
