Memoir: Paddle for a Purpose, eLectio Pubishing, 2018
“You want to what?” I ask, when my husband suggests we kayak the entire Mississippi River – just moments after trying out our newly-built kayak on a quiet lake near our Wisconsin home. My reluctance turns to eager anticipation after we receive a nudge to put service with the adventure, and a purpose for our journey is born. Paddle for a Purpose is the story of faith and discovery along America’s greatest waterway. Against a backdrop of picturesque settings and the river’s changing moods, exciting and often humorous accounts of adventure and mishap intermingle with inspiring stories of healing, renewal, beauty, compassion and trust in God.
All of the author profits from the sale of this book are donated annually to the charities we served on the trip. You can find more information about this memoir, including photo galleries and an interactive map of our journey at www.paddleforapurpose.net.
“Paddle for a Purpose captures the old-fashioned spirit of pioneer explorers and marries it with a modern sense of today’s world. It boasts of stunning descriptions of the Mississippi River’s natural beauty and a yearning to get back to basics, to imagine and dare to live a dream bolstered with little more than faith and a stretch of audacity.”
Excerpt from Authors Reading review
“Geiger’s prose is bright and light-hearted but also filled with kindness and affirmations of putting your trust in God and doing good deeds for others. I particularly enjoyed the expansion aspect of the book, which is an interactive feature where you can view a Google Map of the journey itself, complete with gorgeous photographs from the journey.”
Excerpt from Readers’ Favorite review
Poetry: Mississippi Meanderings, Finishing Line Press, 2024
Mississippi Meanderings displays the beauty and intrigue of America’s most iconic waterway through lyrical snapshots of the river’s many moods, moments in its rich history, and the inhabitants and travelers of its waters and shores. You’ll be awed by river wildlife and sand island sunsets, fascinated by mammoth barges and pearl button factories, and entertained with poems of mishap and moonshine. Come along! Enjoy the journey!
A photo gallery accompanying the poems in the collection can be found under the Photos tab above. You can also download a free discussion guide with optional writing prompts here.
“The flow of poetry and the flow of the Mississippi River merge together in strikingly natural lyricism in Barbara Geiger’s book, Mississippi Meanderings. Geiger has not only watched the river, but she’s been in it and on it as she traveled by kayak down its length. This experience turns into expression as Geiger gives the reader poem postcards of the unforgettable and unpredictable river.”
–Kathie Giorgio, author of All Told and If You Tame Me, among others
“Here in Barbara Geiger’s dynamic and reflective poems are the music and the pull of the Mississippi River from its “heartwaters” to the river’s end where it “transforms to saltwater sea.” This reading adventure took me from the confines of my easy chair into the meandering heart of America’s most iconic river.”
–Margaret Rozga, Wisconsin Poet Laureate, 2019-2020 and author of Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems
Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Calendars
- “After the Snowstorm”, 2025 Calendar, Theme: Shine
- “Identity Revitalized”, 2023 Calendar, Theme: Mythos of Wisconsin
- “Flibbertygibbetty”, 2022 Calendar, Theme: The Feel of a Word
- “Empty Nest”, 2021 Calendar, Theme: Home
Anthologies
- Creative Non-fiction, “Fifty-Year Affair”, Lifespan Series Vol.7: Home, Pure Slush Books, 2023
- Poem, “The Magic of a Box”, Lifespan Series Vol. 2: Growing Up, Pure Slush Books, 2021
- Poem, “Flutter”, Lifespan Series Vol. 1: Birth, Pure Slush Books, 2021
- Poem, “Frances Marie”, Anthology: 100 Lives, Pure Slush Books, 2020
Author Barb Geiger 