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Janet Buck: "Accept, Adapt, and Excel"
"Those two poems, 'The Leg-less Dance' and 'Phantom Pain,'" her friend told her, "have to be shared with the world." And so she wrote, eventually becoming a full-time writer; it is through her writings that she still teaches.
" Writing may end in strength, but it rarely starts there. " It is born of fear, an urge to prove oneself to one's self. I spent most of my life seeking approval in external ways: hiking mountains, playing on the tennis team, accumulating rather unnecessary degrees, and busying myself with concrete accomplishments. The tea, I suppose, was brewing for a deeper well, but until four years ago, I wasn't ready to drink or pour." Buck calls herself, "a small package of big grief that oddly enough seems relevant to a fairly wide audience." Indeed. Until recently, 90% of her writing appeared in mainstream journals. It wasn't until the UN exhibit that the disability world paid her a second glance. She now has four books out and a CD of poetry set to original background music in the final production stages. It's called Before the Rose, a title which brings to my mind the blossoms and the thorns that saddle the lives of all of us. Oh, yes, one more thing. Janet now wears shorts, something she never would have even considered until she started ambling down the acceptance path. "Exposure," Buck says, "is a fleeting thing. The joy of writing lies in the nature of striking a chord with the human race. I will never forget one of my first 'fan letters.' "One woman, who was also an amputee, wrote: 'You have taken five years of my life and put it into one stanza. If you can walk through yours, I suppose I should stop running from mine.' From that moment on, my pen had a reason to move." And move it has. Dr. David Hoffman of At Your Own Speed has called Janet: "The Poet Laureate of the Disability Movement."
"Janet I. Buck describes the medical madness of the modern world and creates powerful poetry that literally made me fall from my chair..." The words of this preeminent Israeli poet have been echoed by others: "I don't know how you do it, but you always leave me with my head in my hands." Most people who meet Janet for the first time are stunned: they expect a depressed, deeply sorrowful person. What they see instead is a package of triumph ribboned in smiles. Janet has accepted, adapted, and excelled. Her work and her presence are a weather vane others can use to point inside. To read Buck’s work, go to: www.janetbuck.com Home Back to Winners 
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