Gary Pilarchik is a licensed social worker. He is currently a therapist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has spent the last 15 years working with adults that have a chronic mental illness. He has seen sweeping changes across the public mental health system and has engaged people in all walks of life. He began writing poetry 12 year ago as a way to manage, purge and express his encounters with the world around him. His poetry has been greatly influenced by the struggles he sees associated with people having a chronic mental illness. He also writes children’s poems as a way to balance the heavier side of life. He takes great pleasure in raising his two children with his wife Angela.

Much of his poetry has been influenced by his children and they way they engage life. He is an avid gardener and finds peace in the dirt, flowers and vegetable plants. He recognizes how life is influenced by others. His grandfather was a gardener and introduced it to him when he was in second grade. This is something that has stayed with him for a life time and now has been passed down to his children. He writes poetry to offer perspectives and as a way to capture the feeling and memories of his life.