Finely/Finally Spoken

Growing up in the streets of Chicago, fighting and striving to be more than what I was, traveling the world to come to know others and myself, my formal education and work as a clinical social worker-all of this has led to a profound and significant understanding of humanity. As a writer, I have captured humanity in my poetry, articulating what I have learned about myself and others. What I know is that we all have depth, a story to tell, a secret to hide, a statement to make, and a deep desire to say what is in our hearts and souls if not to others, to ourselves. When we think of poetry, often we have images of rhyming words, sunsets, and sprawling landscapes. Not this collection. There will be no horses or picnics, instead there will be truth, honesty, and exposure of vulnerabilities. The pendulum will swing from joy and elation, to the kind of bone-crushing pain that pins us to the floor. These poems represent all of what lies in our hearts and souls, even if it is not wrapped in a pretty package, presentable, or stated with sophistication. The experiences captured by the poems in this book are real and raw, shared by you, me, and all of us. This range of poems begins in the 1980's, and ends in 2016, capturing decades of writing about me, others, and for others. Some of these experiences were and are mine, some belong to people who inspired me to write about and for them, thus making the experience ours. I hope as you take this journey, you find these words finely/finally spoken, give voice to your heart and soul's unseen.