Deanie Rowan Blank is the recipient of a W. B. Yeats Pierce Loughran Scholarship. Her poetry has appeared widely in literary journals and was performed by the East Haddam Stage Company. She is a Sunken Garden Poetry Festival Tenth Anniversary Prize finalist. Her poem, “Song for the Innocent Child,” has been set to music for Piano and Choral by conductor and composer Robert Strebendt, and performed. Her focus on writing follows her retirement as a state and national health program developer.
Deanie’s poetry appears in Prairie Schooner, one of the oldest and most respected literary journals in the United States—the special Ireland issue is devoted to contemporary Irish writing. An excerpt of her long rhyming poem, on the Irish mythic hero, Cuchulain, appears in another issue of Prairie Schooner.
Her winning haiku appeared on products and publications of the ITO EN Oi Ocha, co-sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Deanie’s book, Walking Naked Under a Yellow Rain Slicker. is presented here under the Books Section.
She is currently preparing a poetry collection titled “Danger, Danger” pertinent to the poetry and stories of myth, magic, morality, and mischief. To be born is dangerous, to step off a curb, to lose a job opportunity, to have a handicap—one that shows or one that doesn’t, to be hit by a bullet, to be diagnosed with cancer, or Parkinson’s, or depression—it’s all dangerous and risky. To live life fully is to know danger. Danger is a curve ball about to strike. Do you let it hit your head, do you duck, catch it, drop it, bury it, throw it back? Do you learn from it, do you become weaker, or more resilient on life’s journey? The veracity, vinegar, and spice of Deanie’s poems make them a compelling read to be relished even by those not ordinarily drawn to poetry.