Breaking Through

Carol Leavitt Altieri was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up on a farm in East Andover, New Hampshire during the Great Depression (1936-1950) which lasted much longer there. The echoes of early life on the farm and the natural world enhance her poetry. She continues to explore all aspects of nature on the Shoreline of Connecticut.Other poems are interwoven with travels in the United States and other countries: Brazil, British Isles, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Soviet Union, Spain, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.Carol has completed graduate study and was awarded the Certificate of Advanced Study at Wesleyan University in 2001 after receiving a Masters Degree in English and a Sixth Year Degree in Educational Leadership, at Southern Connecticut State University. While there, she received Graduate Poet of the Year.Recipient of an English Speakers Union Scholarship, Carol has studied English literature and culture at the University of London and accepted in Yale/New Haven Teachers Institute for six years.A member of the Guilford Poets Guild, she is now retired. She has published seven previous books of poetry: The Isinglass River, In Beijing there are no Dawn Redwoods, The Jade Bower, Still Brooding on a Strong Branch, Chronicles of Humans With Nature, Parables of Passages, Hiking the Rugged Shore and now Breaking Through.She participates in nature conservation and takes workshops in poetry writing. She enjoys her grandchildren, hiking, bird watching and reading natural history, poetry and creative nonfiction. She recently won a Connecticut Green Circle Award for Environmental activism-as she worked ten years as an activist preserving the shoreline from over development. During the pandemic, she explores the Hammonasset Beach. She is moving to Lakewood Ranch for six months each winter.