In her lifetime, Kathrin Rudland has always analyzed any new
or unfamiliar place in an effort to know who or what lives there
in the present or lived there in the past. She looks not only at
the ordinary people and their everyday lives but also at the natural
world that surrounds these people. She is curious about the long,
continuous journey of generation by generation and how areas
have changed.
From her quiet home in Illinois and through far-reaching travels
across the Arctic, the Far East, Africa, and Europe, the past speaks
to the author in countless ways. Her poems reflect not merely a
love of history but an intuitive, almost unconscious understanding
of the deep resonance of how life once was.
Her poems challenge readers to reflect on how we carry moments
that still echo in ourselves. The past is not an isolated moment in
time, but a lasting legacy of resilience and wisdom that helps us
to shape our daily aspirations and identities. The past is within
us, and this collection focuses on reverence for the natural world
and the passing of time.