Ruth McArthur’s work has appeared in Blue Heron Review, Ocotillo Review, Voices de la Luna and Underwood Press. Her first poetry collection, Persistence, is available on Amazon. Ruth McArthur was a mother, grannie, and writer who passed away in September 2025. As a certified Texas Master Naturalist, (Hill Country Chapter, 2008) she became interested in birds and birding. Most importantly, as a naturalist, her eyes were opened to what was right in front of her. Ruth and her husband, Craig, lived for over 20 years along a creek outside a small town outside San Antonio. The property was under a Wildlife Management Valuation, which Ruth administered. Projects included managing the native but invasive Ashe juniper, urging old agricultural fields to become prairies once again, caring for the riparian zones, and managing habitat for deer and songbirds. In 2020, Ruth and Craig moved to Boston—a few blocks from her daughter’s family. It was from this move that her final collection, Neighborhood Watch, was born. If you asked Ruth, she would have told you that her greatest accomplishment as an author was that her young grandson once chose a warty pumpkin for Halloween simply because she once wrote a book for him, Bumpy Pumpkin. https://www.instagram.com/ruthmcarthur_author/
PRAISE:
Some people look out the window and see the chaos. Others see cosmos—both the flower and the infinite. Neighborhood Watch is a collection of poems that tilts gently toward joy, where lilies of the valley bloom beside empty coffee cups, and butterflies rise above crumpled cigarette packs. A grandmother’s observations, filled with empathy and wonder, remind us how to keep our hearts open.
–Julie Martin
Ruth serves up moments, at once both singular and universal, with delightful detail and precision. She shows us asthmatic rat terriers, women in mauve nylon pajamas, and the magic trick box disappearing into memory. And her grandsons—boy who giggle with the unkempt Bucket Man, are uncomprehending at dead baby blue jays and throw rocks into the cove just like, and thoroughly unlike, so many children before them. Her deep textures of everyday life challenge us to look deeper at the people, events, or world endings that we might not be noticing along the way.
–Robyn Greenler
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