Ruelaine Stokes
poet/spoken word artist
Books
Jar of Plenty
“A collection of poetry with the feel of a novel, Ruelaine Stokes’ new book, Jar of Plenty, is part memoir, part family history, part portrait of the artist through time’s turns. Full of vitality and compassion, the book is a generous, fully realized, inspiring collection—candid and searching and deeply affecting.”
— Lee Upton
Author of Visitations: Stories and
Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles: Poems
More love for Jar of Plenty…
Magic infuses these poems, the imagery bringing the scenes to vivid life in the reader’s mind and placing the reader square into the action. What a gift, this collection, this organizer, this teacher, this poet.
-Laurie Hollinger
Assistant Director, RCAH Center for Poetry
Michigan State University
Spiritual, intense and deeply touching, Jar of Plenty has a special spot on my bookshelf for, as artist and poet, Ruelaine herself embodies Apollinaire’s declaration of the role of the poet in society: “And so they came/And she pushed them/And they flew.”
-Zack Chartkoff
poet, translator
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Ruelaine Stokes now turns her childhood silence into poetry of great sorrow and grace and joy. Jar of Plenty gives us a poet who has found her voice.
-Linda Peckham
Founder of A Rally of Writers and emeritus professor of English
Lansing Community College
My Secret Lansing
Does a city have a soul? —My Secret Lansing gives a resounding “Yes!” to this question in this surprising collection of poetry and short non-fiction prose sketches describing the inner life of Michigan’s Capitol City region. Focusing on ways in which the extraordinary and the ordinary mingle, the book reveals how daily life is infused with secrets, magic, unexpected encounters, curiosities, and occasionally, tragedy and its long reverberations.
Editors: Ruelaine Stokes, poet, performance artist, and arts organizer based in Lansing, MI; and Laura Apol, 2019-2021 Lansing Poet Laureate, widely published poet and writer, and associate professor at Michigan State University.
Photographer: Roxanne J. Frith, professional photographer and former professor of photography at Lansing Community College.