SANDPOINT — One of Josephine Ranes’ first experiences as a writer of poetry could easily have been her last. Good thing she stuck it out, since she now has more than 10 published books of original prose and several thousand people who follow her online poetry blog.

The rocky beginnings to her artistic path began in school, when she turned in a poem as part of an assignment. Rather than a “roses are red” bit of iambic pentameter, she handed over a tough indictment of abuse and bullying, basically calling out the perpetrators of cruelty so directly that her teacher was stunned. And not in an especially good way.

“Bullying wasn’t as big a deal then as it is nowadays and I made it a big deal,” the poet said. “My subject matter was frowned upon, so I quit writing.”

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