Echo Balance is
the book where my writing found a place to gather and call home. My first full
collection of poems which had been wandering separately over the last two decades finally
came together. Sandy VonLienien who is my publisher and dear friend; reminded me
time and again that I needed to do this.
This last few months she began a fight against all odds to not only survive a major stroke
but an aneurysm as well. Thoughts and prayers from family and friends were her constant
companions. I tell you this here at the beginning of the page to ask you to help
me never forget what is really most important to all of us. Things can always be
replaced but family and friends cannot. I realize the importance of this more each day.
Poetry is one of my deepest joys. I began scribbling thoughts and words that at times made
me start to wonder what color the sky is on the real planet Earth. I think it was easy to
accept my LaknSanity and just keep writing anyway. My love of words is something that has
been with me for as long as I can remember. As a tiny child I recall my Mother reading
children's books to me; she would also read the miraculous Bible stories. The Little
Red Hen gave me one of my first tearful understandings of how much someone that love's you
will go to any length to see you through.
With that early influence of words and how magical they were, I found myself writing. I am
proud of my writing and not from a ego sense. I have notebooks and loose paper that
have writing from as far back as ten years old up to the present.
By the time I wrote my book the need for a web page began to be painfully obvious.
Jake and Kit were two creative people who hosted and sponsored an Internet annual
poetry contest called FUSION
POETRY. They provided a forum and financial awards to artists that offered
original poetry to their panel of judges. After being one of the winners in this year's
event, I realized that I needed to have a web site for my poetry to be showcased.
You see that is how it is in our corner of the universe where we believe giving is both a
time of words and a time of action. When people try, there is a positive code of
events that occur from words and deeds. In a world that often seems to have gone mad
- it is good to know that people stop from the grind and listen to life's poems.
Words are powerful and embody the creative universe. We are told that God spoke the
universe into being. That is an incredible way to start all that will ever be. In words
there is a spark of divinity. Jesus Christ is called the Word Of God. I have read words
that took me to far off lands and carried me on a sojourn of exploration through time and
space. I have watched words build and destroy lives and loves.
To this place on the Internet, my words have traveled. At the exact time and place
where you are; these words have found an ear. They have not just jumped into my
mind in the last ten minutes. They have spent months, seasons, eons in coming here.
I am eternally grateful for being reawakened. I offer these few poems to give you an idea
of what finds its way to my surface. There is a supernatural atmosphere around a
thunder storm. I would like to think of this poetry site and these words as my storm
of creativity.
Thank you for taking time to visit my web page.
