Diana Randolph

CONTACT:
Diana Randolph
47790 Blue Moon Road
Drummond, WI 54832
715-798-3619
oiabms@cheqnet.net
www.dianarandolph.com
Professional Facebook Page

BIO:
Diana Randolph writes and paints in Drummond, in the midst of Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest in Northwest Wisconsin. She loves to write poetry, short fiction and memoir pieces. She has been a professional artist for over 30 years, exhibiting her pastel and oil landscape paintings and teaching continuing education workshops. Her writing and artwork is inspired by the natural world.

Randolph journeyed from her birth state of New Jersey to attend Northland College, Ashland, WI where she received a B.A. degree. She remained living in beautiful Wisconsin after graduating.  She has participated in numerous writing and painting workshops over the years.

Randolph loves gardening, walking her dog, hiking, running, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. In the midst of these silent activities she often receives inspiration and ideas for her paintings and writing.

PUBLICATIONS:
Lit Mags & Anthologies: Aqueous Magazine, The Storyteller, Thunderhead Review, Red Cedar Review, Wisconsin Poets' Calendar, Dust & Fire, Verse Wisconsin, An Ariel Anthology and Tower Poetry

Chapbook: In the Heart of the Forest (poetry and paintings) (Savage Press 1999)

Full-Length Collection: Beacons of the Earth and Sky, paintings and poetry inspired by the natural world (Savage Press 2012)

Poetry

Beacons of Hope

You say you’re unable to see the light
at the end of the tunnel,
feeling stuck, immobile.
It only takes one focal point,
one pinpoint of light
to know which direction to turn,
to be guided through veils of darkness.

Perhaps look at a speck of dust­–
radiant in rays of sun,
drifting through your house,
or watch a snowflake
released from murky heavens,
aglow in the porch light.

Or listen to the story of the young boy in Baghdad
who climbed the roof of his home years ago
between bombings during the Iranian/Iraqi War
in awe of the moon and Milky Way
when city lights were blackened.

Now a grown man,
who sent his wife and child away to safety,
he remains at his home and climbs to the roof one again
under extinguished city lights
to focus his telescope on the Orion Nebula,

the heavenly body which began to form
from just one cosmic particle
drifting through darkness,
beckoning others to gather
with hopes of one day
birthing a new star.

From Beacons of the Earth and Sky

After Listening to the Weather Forecast

Numerous community members
head to town
to fill their grocery carts.
Down the aisles
everyone chatters
with animated voices,
excited with anticipation.

Above the parking lot
the gray sky bulges in silence.

All morning
the heavens hang in stillness,
heavy and pregnant,
ready to give birth.

By afternoon
even the bare, frozen ground,
bleak and brown,
appears to be impatient
and the shivering,
dried stalks of hollyhocks
long to be covered
in a blanket of white.

From Beacons of the Earth and Sky