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Neighborhood Watch by Ruth McArthur

Original price was: $17.99.Current price is: $15.99.

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—boy 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.

–Robyn Greenler

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Neighborhood Watch

by Ruth McArthur

Paper

Pre-order Price Guarantee until May 22, 2026

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This title will be released on July 17, 2026

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 and their commitment to radical collaboration in cancer research.
#poetry #nature #family #community #neighborhoodwatch #mindfulness #Boston #JamaicaPlain
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Ruth McArthur’s work has appeared in Blue Heron Review, Ocotillo Review, Voices de la Luna and Underwood Press. Her first poetry collection, Persistence, is available on Amazon.

Ruth McArthur was a mother, grannie, and writer who passed away in September 2025. As a certified Texas Master Naturalist, (Hill Country Chapter, 2008) she became interested in birds and birding. Most importantly, as a naturalist, her eyes were opened to what was right in front of her.

Ruth and her husband, Craig, lived for over 20 years 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 agricultural fields to become prairies once again, caring for the riparian zones, and managing habitat for deer and songbirds.

In 2020, Ruth and Craig 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.