GRATITUDE POST: There are not enough words to describe the amount of gratitude that I have for being able to design and facilitate the, “Love Is… Poetry Series” sponsored by Fairfax County Public Libraries.
This 3 part series walked people through various forms of poetry such as Free Verse, dispelling the myth that all poems have to rhyme, Narrative and tonight we concluded with Pantoum poems.
Being able to share my love of poetry with people through teaching has been magical and a dream come true! Thankful for everyone who signed up, participated, spread the word, shared and encouraged me. The energy has been electric, loved how people stepped out their comfort zones, wrote poetry AND shared!!!
Stay tuned for more offerings. “Love Is…Poetry Series” will be back!
Join us next Tuesday, February 22nd at 7pm EST is Self-Publishing 101 & Poetry! You can sign up below. Cost is FREE!!! Sponsored by Fairfax County Public Libraries:
This is only the beginning and as a loved one told me this weekend, “You have put in the work and it’s your time.” AMEN!
Much love, birth your dreams and be obedient to the call. I could have been scared to teach…but when I say it’s been a beautiful experience…it’s a true blessing! It started with Self Publishing classes…health and wellness coaching topics and now…teaching forms of poetry!
Thank you to the poets who taught me and paved the way!!!!
Welcome to my blog and my website. I wanted my first post to be about what led me to be a writer and down the road to becoming a self-published author.
Image not owned by me
Throughout my blogs I will post poetry, inspiring articles, talk more about my journey and share some tips that I’ve learned through publishing. I love writing everything from poetry, children’s stories, fiction and memoirs.
I’ve been writing since I was a little girl and I always loved to write children’s stories that were a reflection of me. I grew up mainly in the 80s and born in the 70s and that was during the era of roller skating, disco music, rap, block parties and great times. The first book I ever wrote was on construction paper and it was titled, “Cinderella the Disco Queen.” I loved the story Cinderella but she didn’t look like me and my Cinderella had a big afro puff and roller skates instead of glass slippers. Her goal was to get to the ball that was at the roller skating rink to meet the prince. From there I just wrote stories because I love to write and I was really shy to the point where I barely talked to anyone and at that point of time I didn’t know that I was using my voice through writing.
When I entered a specialized Elementary School in Harlem , NY called Central Park East 1 my beloved principal and my teachers really pushed me to keep writing. They gave me journals and I would go through a few of them in one semester just writing stories. When I got to the high school (Central Park East Seconday School) one of my portfolios in order to graduate I wrote an African folktale or myth. My teacher’s at that time and a couple in particular said we really see you being published one day. We see this portfolio in particular becoming a published children’s book. I thanked them for the compliments and never saw myself as published and I brushed off what they said. I never thought I could become published.
I kept writing all through college and then I started writing poetry when I graduated. Poetry for me was a way to get through life’s tribulations, help heal me through pain with bad breakups and then I started writing poetry about the beautiful things I experienced in life and what inspired me. I wrote lots of poetry, kept writing children’s books, and then I even delved into fiction books. One article that I wrote for a magazine started off as just a simple few pages and then before you know it years later I was writing “The End” as it was now a fiction book which will be dropping in 2019 titled, “Losing Yourself in a Man.”
Writing for me is freedom, creative way to express myself and what I’ve learned with my writing is that some of it is even helping others as they go through things in life. It’s healing for my soul and it is something I am deeply passionate about.
Image not owned by me.
My first book “Reconstruction, Pieces of Life Volume 1” came out in 2014 and that was originally a journal that I had pieced together for a silent auction for beautiful organization called Arts Conspiracy in Dallas Texas in 2008. I collaborated with artists and I had artwork in my journal and it sold for $100 that night. The woman who was outbidded asked me a question that sat with me for years, she asked, “Where can I buy a copy of the published book?” The light bulb went off and I told her I will start working on it!
Life happens and I put my books to the side to tend to my mother who became ill with ovarian cancer and then eventually passed away and then I started my own family. It wasn’t until I got bitten by a tick which will be in another blog in itself and was diagnosed with Lyme disease and was at a very sick point in my life when I dusted off Reconstruction, Pieces of Life Volume 1 and that was a year-and-a-half of writing and collaborating with artists all the while going through IV treatments and trying to get 35 symptoms down to zero. I wanted to leave a legacy for my son in case I died because I felt that sick. Hence the book being birthed in 2014 during one of the darkest and sickest moments of my life.
I’m sharing all of this just to give you a glimpse of my personal writing journey and I have now published two poetry books and I have more books on the way. There are also numerous articles out in the universe too since I’m a health and wellness writer for blogs and online magazines and have poetry published in a variety of places. I’m hoping that I can inspire someone who is thinking about writing, has stuff in their laptop and put it to the side like I did because life happened and I’m hoping that I can encourage them to dust that journal, laptop, notebook whatever they used to write and to just write. Even if you only write a page or two a week. If the pen and pad are calling you then don’t ignore the call like I did. Ever since I got a second chance on life I have not stopped writing. Birth your book, article, research, art…whatever it is. It’s time to birth your dreams and follow your path!
