I was fortunate to grow up surrounded by great natural beauty: in the woods, fields and gardens of rural Albemarle County, Virginia. Far from the nearest neighbor, my parents’ property, “Evergreen,” had a lush rolling lawn—bordering acres of woods—flower gardens, scattered shade pines, and on clear days a magnificent view of the Southwestern mountains. As a child walking among the shade trees and through my mother’s perennial and flower gardens—and later, through the surrounding woods with its streams, hollows, and vistas—I always found genuine peace. My mother’s carefully cultivated roses, peonies, flowering shrubs and trees, and the beauty of the ancient mountains first found voice in my poetry. My photographic work, developed later, reflects my growing intimacy with the natural world and a wider appreciation of its moods and subtleties.
The splendid beauty of flowers and landscapes in the scenic country where I still reside has always suggested to me the deepest mysteries of life and a magical transcendence.
Brief Biography
Rebecca Lilly works as a writer, photographer, field assistant to a landscape architect, and guest lecturer. She holds degrees from Cornell (M.F.A., poetry) and Princeton (Ph.D., philosophy) Universities and has published several collections of poems, including two gift books of haiku-—one collection on butterflies (A Prism of Wings) and a companion volume on wildflowers (Light’s Reservoir)—each featuring twelve color plates of specimens by recognized artists. Her poetry has appeared widely in national magazines and literary journals.
Her photographic portfolio consists of images of flowers and fruit. Their intimacy and vivid appeal to the imagination have been widely applauded. Images from her collections can be purchased as gift enclosures, photographic note cards, fine art prints, and wall art.
Aside from her gift collections on butterflies and wildflowers, she has published three additional poetry books, among them You Want to Sell Me a Small Antique (Gibbs Smith), winner of the Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize, and Shadwell Hills (Birch Brook Press), a book of haiku, which received a Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America. Her poems have appeared widely in literary journals, including The Iowa Review, London Magazine, Verse, and Barrow Street, and her haiku appear regularly in Modern Haiku. In addition to her poetry collections, she has published two books on spiritual philosophy and practice: The Insights of Higher Awareness, and Ego and the Spiritual Self, both from Humanics Publishing Group.