Patricia Janus
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Patricia "Pat" Janus (April 20, 1932 - June 9, 2006) was an American poet.
Born Patricia O'Brien to Thomas and Rose O'Brien, she was raised in New York City where she worked for a brokerage firm. She met John "Jack" Janus (1910-1991), whom she married in the early 1950s. Her husband went on to become a pharmacist, and his work eventually tranplanted the family (which by then included three sons) to Rochester, NY.
Her work appeared in numerous literary publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, Yankee, and American Poetry Review, and was anthologized in several volumes, including Summer Songs (2004), Knocking on the Silence (2005), and The Pinnacle Hill Review. Her collection Love in the Time of Anthrax was released by FootHills Press in 2005. Her last volume is Synchronicity, published by FootHills in June, 2006.
A member of a group of Rochester artists who meet weekly as the "Artists' Breakfast Group," she created a number of mixed
media pieces over the years which were displayed in various area exhibits, including Rochester's Center at High Falls Gallery, "Line Art", and "16x20" shows, and, in May 2006, "Text & Texture II", which featured what would be her final piece, "Pain."
A member of Rochester Poets since the late 1960s (when it was called The Rochester Poetry Society), she served the organization in several posts, including terms as president.
She had a career as a hospital nurse; upon her retirement she worked in Rochester as a hospital chaplain at Highland Hospital, and a hospice oncology nurse at Isaiah House.
Battling cancer herself for nearly a year, she died on June 9, 2006, aged 74, at Highland the day after a publication reading for Synchronicity, a volume of collected poems spanning the years since 1970. She continued her work as a chaplain and nurse up until a few weeks before her death and was still working on a chapbook of poems about New Mexico.
Upon her death, she was survived by three sons -- Mark (wife, Angela), Kevin (wife, Tracy) and Thomas -- and four grandchildren.
Below is one of her poems, which was published in the National Catholic Reporter on December 12, 2003
- Visiting a Quaker Meeting
- I am new to this.
- My mantra selects itself,
- different from the one I chose.
- The kangaroo mind leaps
- to my list of needs.
- Is someone watching the time?
- The monkey chatters.
- Is this how forever begins?
- The mind and heart
- go off on different paths;
- the mantra calls them back
- until it changes
- to a prayer of syllables
- that does not translate into words
- but spirit song.
