You can tell a lot about a person from their vanity plates. Memphis, Tennessee poet Jane Barcroft?s SUV licence proudly proclaims ?Iluvbda?.

If the old saying, ?home is where the heart is? is true then Mrs. Barcroft?s home must surely be in Bermuda.

She published a collection of poems about her love for Bermuda ?Pink Sand Poems? a couple of years ago, and she has another collection on the way called ?Bermuda On My Mind?.

Mrs. Barcroft was a military brat who moved here with her family in 1961 at the age of 12. Her parents were Dorris and Mary Barcroft and she was the oldest of five children including Betsey, Coburn, Kate and Tim.

Although they left the Island in 1964, she has never forgotten her time living on the South Shore in Smith?s Parish.

?It was a wonderful time,? said Mrs. Barcroft. ?If ever there was a time in our childhood to remember fondly, it was our time in Bermuda. It was a defining moment. We just loved it. My mother always made moving fun, so I don?t have any negative thoughts about that, but we lived in a lot of places. The older I got, I realised how fortunate I had been to live in Bermuda.?

Unfortunately, it took Mrs. Barcroft 38 years to come back to the Island she?d once called home.

During her 2002 visit, Mrs. Barcroft fell in love with Bermuda all over again, and she has been back at least three times a year ever since. The result of her renewed passion was ?Pink Sand Poems? which is illustrated by another Memphis resident, Cathy Stanz.

One of Mrs. Barcroft?s poems, ?The Answer? reads in part: ?I have been longing, searching for something, I can finally see, it?s me in Bermuda, and Bermuda in me.?

Her next book, ?Bermuda On My Mind? will be a book of 20 poems that she has been working on it for about two years.

Her books of poetry are a great advertisement for Bermuda. ?Bermuda On My Mind? has not yet hit the shelves, but already one Memphis bookstore, Davis-Kidd Booksellers, plans to sell it in their travel section.

?I have written poems for years,? said Mrs. Barcroft. ?Besides writing about Bermuda, I also write poems about my family and places that I have travelled. Usually I write them and just give them away.

?I feel like sometimes that my family and roots are with people I have known as opposed to where I live now. I have lived here all my adult life, but I feel real comfortable in Bermuda and I feel like I am going home when I travel there. I don?t really go to do the touristy things. Sometimes I just sit on the rocks and think and write.?

Mrs. Barcroft?s son and three grandchildren, enjoy reading her work.

?All my family likes to read the stuff that I write,? she said. ?My sister Betsey and I have worked together on two novels, but have not yet found a publisher for them.?

The poet works as an office manager in her sister?s dental practise. Previous to that, she worked for 15 years as a social worker.

?I write when I come to Bermuda,? she said. ?I always carry a pen and paper with me in my purse. I get lots of ideas, but I have to have some quiet time.?

Besides writing, Mrs. Barcroft also likes white river rafting and camping outdoors with her sister. She also volunteers with her sister in a paediatric dental project in Alaska.

She and her sister Betsey travel twice a year to Alaska to work at Indian health hospitals.

?Our next trip will be our 19th,? she said. ?This time we are going to Nome, Alaska. We will treat 50 kids who are five years old and younger. Some of them have terrible dental hygiene. We are in the bush and there are no roads.?

Over the years she and her sister have formed good relationships with people in Alaska. Several times people from the clinics in Alaska have visited her and her family in Memphis.

Pink Sand Poems is available for sale in Bermuda. For more information about Mrs. Barcroft check out her website at http://www.bermudashorts.bm/bermudatales.