A Miami writer’s poem for a struggling adult student became something the student carried for years. Ricki Dorn, who writes as Rita Fidler Dorn, described the moment on Episode 45 of The Miami Book Hub, a local interview series.
Dorn once taught night classes at Hialeah-Miami Lakes, the high school host Miami writer Edgar Garcia attended. During a break, a mother of five who had left school in the tenth grade told Dorn she was worried about keeping up. Dorn promised to bring something to the next class and wrote a poem called “All I Have Is Me.”
Years later, the woman emailed Dorn to say she had graduated. She had kept the poem in her wallet the whole time.
Dorn, a former president of the South Florida Writers Association, has written poetry since she was seven. Her latest collection, Profiles in Poetry, includes a punctuation party invitation and a cranberry meatloaf recipe written in rhyme. She launched the book at a wine shop, and she read a birthday poem for Edgar Allan Poe on the show.
For readers who want to start writing, Dorn suggested picking a subject they feel strongly about and writing one sentence at a time. Signed copies of her book and questions about her workshops can be sent to Raindance3930@gmail.com. Episodes are available at TheMiamiBookHub.com.
