My Book Belongs to the World

the invisible heroine , my poetry chapbook from Finishing Line Press, is out and fluttering around the earth like wildflowers in an afternoon breeze.

These poems began in my heart, as a seed of an idea. They grew there. Some blossomed. Others wilted. I gathered the blooms into a bouquet, one by one, until it was complete.

Now that collection of poems, born of my heart and soul, exists physically in this world as a book.

And it's not mine anymore.

The beautiful thing about poetry is that it doesn't belong to anyone. It's a part of all of us –- a part of our shared existence. Yet, my poetry is unique from another writing about the same subject.

When it left my hands for that final time to enter into the actual printing process, I released those poems back into the wilds of the world. I bore them. I nurtured them. And now I let them go. This collection was not mine anymore, and that was both thrilling and terrifying all at once.

I love that my poems belong to the world. It's a whole lot of magic to me, and I am grateful to be a part of it.

Special thanks to Finishing Line Press, publisher Leah Maines and my editor Christen Kincaid; Melanie Johnston for the perfect cover art; Peter Levitt, Gini Koch and Leah Maines for blurbing my book with wonderful thought and insight; and all of you who have or will purchase a copy of the invisible heroine . I thank you!