I've always loved creativity of all kinds.
But I never had an urge to write poetry.

And then, at the end of a love relationship
that was important to me,
I started hearing words in my head -
the first of these love poems.

Suddenly, night after night,
I would wake up with words -
sometimes poems, sometimes songs -
going through my head.

Once a cowboy was singing,
It hurts when you break
a leg or a heart.

I remember 19 poems the first month.

When I (sort of) complained to a friend,
she just about fell off her chair laughing.
What was I doing, complaining about
the opposite of writer's block?!?

From my point of view, I was being taken
somewhere totally unexpected.

Still, I kind of liked what was happening -
one of those amazing surprise twists -
so I followed the words in my head,
wrote them down, let more words come,
typed them up.

But I certainly didn't choose to write poetry.
In fact, I didn't think of what I was writing
as poetry, but as spoken word pieces -
words meant to be spoken and to go with music.

Where was all this coming from?
Some of it was grief - an emotion I'd
generally stayed far away from.
Somehow the grief opened something in me.

There's more. I'd been breaking
so many inner taboos -
reaching out when I usually stayed safe -
daring instead of waiting and longing and hoping.

Love ... that was part of it.
And old grief, I am sure.

It took every iota of strength I had to dare,
to reach out.

It felt - it was - a change in lifelines.




It also felt so easy and natural -
even though so unexpected.





Now it's almost 20 years later -
and the flow of poems has ebbed at times,
but never stopped.



Over the past year and a half,
I've once again been changing lifelines -
or so it feels, anyway.

I will always be my father's daughter.

I have so many gifts from him -
creativity, passion, caring, empathy,
concern for social justice,
boundless desire to learn.

I've been doing my best to break
the hold of ancient fears and lack of knowing,
barriers that probably go back for generations.

Part of breaking lifelines, changing lifelines,
has been getting my works further out
into the world than my father
would ever have imagined -
though he dreamed of having
his work known, I'm sure.

About five years ago,
I started building a home on the web
for my writings - including ElsasWords.
In February 2011, there were 49,767
page views for the month.
In February 2012, there were 59,98 -
the highest it's been.

I've given a gift to my father -
several years after his death.

A couple of years ago, I put a few
of his poems and stories on the web.
They get about 1000 page views a month.

So in a small way, I'm breaking
some of the barriers that kept
his work away from the world.

And as part of my own journey,
I've collected 22 of my favorite love poems
into an e-book, True Love Poems.

There are so many more
plans and hopes and dreams.

From heart breaking open wide
to life breaking open wide.

For more writer blogs, click here.

For the table of contents of
Love Poems for You,
click here.

True Love Poems -
a collection of 22 love poems,
on the many sides of loving.


Click to buy ...

    or    
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Below are samples
of the special edition page
and kindle page.


Here is a sample of the special edition page.


Here is a sample of the kindle page.


        
             
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Writer blog. Woman poet?
Love song artist?
The words are clumsy.
I listen to the words in my head.
Writer blogs.
Interviews with writers,
female poets.

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