Ruminatons by Judy Bebelaar

Ruminations was inspired by the thirteenth century poet, scholar, and Sufi mystic, Rumi, who wrote in his native tongue, Persian. I am grateful to Coleman Barks for his sensitive and insightful translations of Rumi’s poetry as well as for his stories about Rumi’s life. Each of my poems is inspired by a line or a thought from one of Rumi’s. Poet Katharine Harer says of the book: Judy Bebelaar’s poems are a meditation on “life’s persistence” as she invites us into her dance with the Sufi poet, Rumi. Bebelaar isn’t shy about combining grief and joy, unimaginable loss and the embrace of the “summer-soft hills.” #poetry #Rumi #ruminations #love #griefandloss beautyofnature whirlingdervish

For 37 years, Judy Bebelaar enjoyed teaching in the San Francisco public high schools. She especially loved teaching creative writing, finding it to be the best way to reach her students and to encouragethem to get to know and understand one another. Over the years, her students won many awards, both locally and on the national level, including the National Scholastic Writing Contest. In 2000, when eight of her students became winners, Judy was awarded a national prize from Scholastic to honor the excellence of her teaching. Her poetry has been published widely in magazines and in nine anthologies, including The Widows’ Handbook (Kent State University Press; forward by Ruth Bader Ginsburg). A chapbook, Walking Across the Pacific, was published in 2014 (Finishing Line Press), and in 2023, a full-length poetry book, Sky Holding Fall, was published by Blue Light Press. A nonfiction book written with Ron Cabral, And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown (Sugartown Press, 2018), has won ten honors and awards, among them four first prizes, and both Ron and Judy were named San Francisco Library Laureates.