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Along The Journey of my Growth
To Woman, From Man is a heartfelt poetry collection that honors women across history, family, love, and spiritual life through accessible, uplifting verse rooted in praise, witness, and encouragement. Why was this an important collection for you to write and publish?
With Women’s History approaching in March, I wanted to put together my poetry and prose in a book that would be relevant to women, that would honor women (both famous and non-famous women), and that would acknowledge the discredit, noncredit, and abuse of women over centuries. Also, I wished to challenge women to rise up for themselves and against challenges of today’s world. It was also important for me to acknowledge and express gratitude to significant women to me over my lifetime, including three of my school teachers, a college instructor, my Sunday school teacher, and the mother of my first male, neighborhood, childhood friends. Moreover, I dedicated To Woman, From Man to my dear mother who was the most significant woman in my life—a mother who was always present and supportive, who didn’t drink alcohol, smoke, or go to nightclubs.
How did your experiences with admiration, memory, faith, and counseling influence the voice and structure of this collection?
Famous author, the late Alex Haley, once stated as speaker at a conference that I attended, “If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know that it had to have help to get there.” I have, especially in my latter years of life, appreciated and reflected back upon people who have helped me along the journey of my growth and achievements. Many of these people have been women of character who cared deeply about me as they did about others. Moreover, I taught college courses in psychology and counseling and psychotherapy, mainly graduate students, with classes of more than 80 percent women, many who worked jobs and/or cared for their children while pursuing their studies for a master’s or doctoral degree. I respected these women’s perseverance and courage in pursuit of a higher academic degree. In addition, I counseled and supervised counseling cases of women who had been physically or sexually abused. These experiences, among others, influenced my thinking and worldview.
Moreover, I taught public school for one year after my bachelor’s degree, two full-time teaching positions at day and evening or night. Many of the students in the night school were pregnant, because during that time girls who became pregnant had to drop out of day public school and enroll in a night school program. One very rewarding class that I recall was a class of all pregnant teenage girls who were highly motivated to learn and listen. It was a joy to see them each evening and teach them, because I believed that they were learning and completing their high school diploma in order to provide a good life for their unborn child.
Of all the themes in the book, motherhood, grief, love, friendship, healing, and leadership, which felt most urgent for you to speak to, and why?
I don’t usually choose comparatively or use superlatives, because, in the case of these themes, all of them have their importance depending on a woman’s situation and the period or stage of her development. Regarding these themes, all women deal with most of these circumstances, challenges, and emotions at some point in their lives, such as untimely death of a child, death of a spouse or parent, marital divorce, loss of or conflicts in friendships, marital or relationship problems, gender discrimination in the job market, challenges of leadership, joys and challenges of motherhood, health problems, and physical/sexual abuse.
What guided your choice to include both globally known women and everyday, non-famous women in the same collection of tributes?
To me, all women, especially those of character or importance to others, are worthy of recognition and appreciation. For example, To Woman, From Man pays tribute to a housekeeper who works two jobs to put two children through college, a woman on the front desk of my fitness club who always greets members with a smile and by name and is always voluntarily helpful; a mother of nine children that included my childhood, neighborhood male friends—a mother who worked tirelessly as a wife, mother, neighborhood worker, and church member. Moreover, I include famous women of exceptional achievement whom I like and respect due to their character and high achievement against the odds—women such as Helen Keller (who achieved highly regardless of being both deaf and blind), Marie Curie (who earned two Nobel Prizes in science), Tina Turner (who transcended spousal abuse to excel in entertainment and become a positive role model for women), Harriet Tubman (for her courage and leadership), Serena Williams and Misty Copeland who rose to the highest level of their profession against odds, as well as other women of character and achievement. I also acknowledge and express gratitude to my three female medical doctors, my woman barber of 19 years, my woman accountant of 14 years, the two mothers of my sons who remain my close friends, a constant woman friend of more than 55 years, and my two amazing granddaughters.
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To Woman, From Man
To Woman, From Man is a poetry collection with some prose woven in, and it reads as a long tribute to women across private life, public history, and spiritual imagination. Author Frederick Douglas Harper structures it in broad sections that move through inspirational and therapeutic poems, tributes to famous and non-famous women, motherhood, children, love and romance, friendship, and a closing set of author quotations. The book honors women, names harm done to them, and urges them toward strength, leadership, healing, and self-worth. That makes it feel like a blend of tribute poetry, inspirational writing, and reflective social commentary rather than a conventional single-arc poetry collection.
What stayed with me most was how direct Harper is. He isn’t interested in being cool or elusive. He says what he means, and he says it often with the plainspoken urgency of someone who wants the words to help somebody today, not years from now. In poems like “My Dear Woman, You Have Risen,” “Apology From Honorable Men To Woman And Girl,” and “Your Body, Your Mind,” the lines come at the reader with a steady, almost spoken rhythm, more like counsel offered face to face than poetry meant to sit behind glass. I found that sincerity moving.
I was also struck by how much of the book is powered by gratitude and moral purpose. Harper’s dedication to his mother and his introduction make it clear that this isn’t an abstract project for him. It comes out of lived admiration, memory, faith, and a counselor’s instinct to encourage and steady people. You can feel that in the therapeutic pieces about grief, fear, anger, loneliness, and self-destruction, and you can feel it again in the celebratory poems that honor women from Helen Keller and Harriet Tubman to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Serena. Sometimes the spiritual language and broad praise felt sweeping. But then the book would land on something simple and human, and it worked. A line about women being tired of “pushing” did that. So did the quieter moments around love and friendship. The collection feels less like a polished recital hall and more like a community space where someone stands up, clears his throat, and speaks from conviction.
I’d recommend To Woman, From Man most to readers who appreciate inspirational poetry, tribute poetry, and spiritually grounded reflection more than formal experimentation. People who like poems that are accessible, earnest, and openly instructive will probably get the most from it. For me, the book worked best when I let it be what it is: a heartfelt, old-fashioned, deeply intentional act of praise, witness, and encouragement.
Pages: 300 | ASIN: B0GP19BXZX
