About The Poet

Barbara C. Welsh is a poet, editor, and retired teacher - among many other accomplishments. She started writing poetry during the COVID-19 pandemic. While learning a new dance online she wrote her first poem, "Hoping, Praying, and Dancing."  

Since then, she has written over 400 poems, many of which have been published in The Villages Daily Sun, Poet's Corner, and in the Village Neighbors magazine.

Barbara loves to dance, especially line dancing, Zumba and, more recently, cardio drumming and yoga/Pilates. She was in the Gemstone Dancers, a performing dance group, and is a volunteer counselor at the Pregnancy and Family Care Center in Leesburg, FL.

A member of The Florida Authors and Publishers Association (FAPA), Florida Writers Association (FWA), the Writers League of The Villages (WLOV), and Associate Member of the Academy of American Poets, Barbara has a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics and Education from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a Master of Arts degree in Family Studies from Montclair State University in NJ.

Barbara lives in The Villages, Florida with her husband, Michael Yankus. She has three children, four stepchildren, and eighteen grandchildren.