I was eight years old when I first remember writing poetry.
Maybe I didn’t even know I was writing poetry;
I just knew I had something inside me I had to put on paper.

It was around sunrise and no one else in the house was stirring.
There was a stack of library books waiting for me,
but such a beautiful morning seemed made for creating, not consuming.

The cover of the book on the top of the stack
had a beautifully drawn desert landscape
and a simple title: Lost.

I found a scrap of paper and a pencil
and scribbled down the words that had come to mind.
Later, my dad found the little poem.

If he hadn’t have kept it,
I don’t know that I would remember writing it.
I’m glad he did, because this was only the beginning.

For my twelfth birthday,
my web-designer dad
created a blog for me.

I didn’t post any poetry there,
but over the course of a few years
this first blog helped me to develop a writing habit.

Five years later I moved on to a new blog,
this one slightly less random,
with a focus on sewing and history.

A poem slipped in here and there,
when I felt like sharing one of the musings
that I usually kept to myself.

After a while, I found myself with more poems in my draft folder
than posts on-topic for my sewing and history theme.
I began to consider the idea of a new blog.

Shortly after my twenty-second birthday,
I moved far from my family
to work for a non-profit called Justice For All.

I decided that since my life was transitioning anyway,
I’d abandon my old blog
and begin a new one.

I had no real goals for the blog;
it was simply a place where I could share
the poems I wrote as I processed life.

I did a lot of processing
for the year-and-a-half
that I worked for JFA.

Part of my job was helping college students
process hard issues like abortion,
and all the emotions and passions surrounding that issue.

I heard countless stories,
many of them heart-breaking,
and channeled that energy into poetry.

I published nearly 100 posts on that poetry blog
and then, when I left my job at JFA,
I left the blog as well.

I didn’t abandon poetry, though.
As I transitioned back into the sewing world,
I brought my poetic voice with me.

I used poetry to make a point.
I shared my sewing knowledge in poetic form,
and even wrote an instructional book in what I like to call poetic prose.

I became known for my unique voice.
In fact, people began to tell me
that they thought of me as a poet first, then a seamstress.

Many of my readers were there to read my poems,
not to glean sewing knowledge
(though they got that as a side benefit).

When my readers discovered that I used to have a blog
full to overflowing with poetry,
they got excited and told me they wanted more.

I’m a poet at heart.
This is how my passions and emotions flow out.
And so, for this next season, I will be letting my poems flow out to you.

Since I can’t not write poetry,
and since you want to read more poetry,
I will be giving you more poetry.

I’m not abandoning these sorts of blog posts
that aren’t exactly poems,
even if they are poetic in form.

I will continue to share about what inspires me,
the stories behind the poems I write,
and even informative articles…
but in addition to that,
I will be sharing more of my poems.
And who knows? There may even be a book in the works!