Ruth McArthur
Poet
Ruth McArthur was a mother, grannie, and writer who passed away September 2025. She was a certified Texas Master Naturalist (Hill Country Chapter, 2008) which opened her eyes to what is right in front of her, and through that organization became interested in birds and birding.
Ruth and her husband lived for over 20 years on acreage along a creek outside a small town outside San Antonio. The property was under a Wildlife Management Valuation, which Ruth administered. Projects included managing the native but invasive Ashe juniper, urging old ag fields to become prairies once again, caring for the riparian area, managing habitat for deer and songbirds.
In 2020 she and her husband moved to Boston a few blocks from her daughter’s family. It was from this move that her final collection, Neighborhood Watch was born.
If you asked Ruth, she would have told you that her greatest accomplishment as an author was that her young grandson once chose a warty pumpkin for Halloween simply because she once wrote a book for him, Bumpy Pumpkin.
The family of Ruth has decided to carry on her legacy through her words. Her final complete poetry book will be published May 2026 through Finishing Line Press.
Neighborhood Watch
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH serves as a vivid witness to the magic hidden within the motion of everyday life. Navigating an urban landscape where domestic rituals meet the wildness of the outdoors, these poems find revelation in the small and the singular—from the curiosity of grandsons discovering the natural world to the quiet dignity of aging pets and the neighbors who inhabit our shared streets. The collection honors the full spectrum of the human experience, treating trips to the bodega and neighborhood encounters with the same reverence as the shifts of the seasons. By documenting these deep textures of daily existence, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH challenges the reader to find stillness in the motion of modern life and to honor the beauty inherent in every season of existence.
Proceeds from Ruth McArthur’s final book will be donated to Break Through Cancer supporting Radical Collaboration in Cancer research.
Cover art by Craig C. Childs
Praise for Neighborhood Watch
“Some people look out the window and see the chaos. Others see cosmos—both the flower and the infinite. Neighborhood Watch is a collection of poems that tilts gently toward joy, where lilies of the valley bloom beside empty coffee cups, and butterflies rise above crumpled cigarette packs. A grandmother’s observations, filled with empathy and wonder, remind us how to keep our hearts open.”
— Julie Martin“Ruth serves up moments, at once both singular and universal, with delightful detail and precision. She shows us asthmatic rat terriers, women in mauve nylon pajamas, and the magic trick box disappearing into memory. And her grandsons—boys who giggle with the unkempt Bucket Man, are uncomprehending at dead baby blue jays and throw rocks into the cove just like, and thoroughly unlike, so many children before them. Her deep textures of everyday life challenge us to look deeper at the people, events, or world endings that we might not be noticing along the way”
— Robin Greenler
Persistence
Cover art by Cecilia Fuentes
Persistence, Ruth’s first book of poetry. This story-in-verse is based on family stories around the women whose lives were touched by her maternal grandfather and the courage they showed in persevering despite his less than honorable impulses.
The story behind the stories
We grew up with stories of our maternal grandfather - a man self-centered to the point of cruelty. Sometime in the 1960s, a woman contacted the family as she was a child from a previous marriage. She and my mother, half sisters, corresponded until their deaths, and even visited at one point. A few years back, one of my sisters joined a genealogy website and was discovered by a great-granddaughter of from yet another marriage. My siblings and I shared our memories and family lore and “new cousin” Lynn shared hers. Looking at them all together, it painted a sorry picture. I got on a genealogy site myself and put together a paper trail that put the lie to many stories and created questions and new stories. I knew I had to write about this and the result is Persistence. Since its writing, new information has come to light, so the story continues…..
Praise for Persistence
“After poring through census records, letters between cousins and old newspaper reports, poet Ruth McArthur has painstakingly stitched her family tree into fascinating lyric and story, centering the nearly invisible lives of mothers, daughters, and (not quite) wives. Conjuring the folksy voices of women all impacted by one man’s wide swath, she explores how trauma carries down the generations and how it can be halted. As women continue to build the #metoo movement, Persistence reminds us justice in the present demands we honor the past as well, “knitting broken bits toward wholeness.”
— Sarah Sadie, founder of Studio Sadie, author of We are traveling through dark at tremendous speeds
Other publications
Blue Heron Review
Summer 2017 contributor View
The Ocotillo Review Vol 2.1
Winter 2018 contributor as Ruth Frances View
Through Layered Limestone: a Texas Hill Country anthology of place
2019, contributor Amazon
Underwood Press, Issue 2
May 2019 contributor View Issue
Voices de la Luna
August 2019 contributor View Archive
easing the edges: a collection of everyday miracles
November 2021 contributor Amazon
formidibal Woman Sanctuary
Fall 2023: prayers, praise, & blessings archive