Never having been a fan of poetry before, imagine my surprise when I began writing my own poems - some very short, some long but all emotional, heart wrenching and true. For the first time, I was able to put in black and white some of those feelings that I had bottled up for almost 40 years. As many survivors will tell you, it's so much easier to ignore your feelings so you don't have to deal with them...or the reasons behind them, but "easy" isn't necessarily healthy or constructive. Shutting down emotionally may dull the pain and make it so we can get through each day but it won't help anyone heal.

This small book inspired me to explore my own feelings, feel the pain but also know that THIS pain would help me heal and to deal with my past, to understand it and to recover from it. It's an often misused word, but I would consider this book to be the most "empowering" of any that I have yet to read on childhood sexual abuse.

May every abuse survivor find their own true voice.

I call my shortest poem, "Growing Up":

In many ways, I grew up too fast,
In some ways, I never grew up at all.
I want to grow old on MY terms.