Days of Soup and Holler

"I got to see her triumph and fall apart. I wept and cheered for her. She was so beautiful and so strong, so weak and hurting, all swept together and intertwined." ~ from an included prose piece titled, My Life Story in Music. These are poems from my idyllic youth, my rebellion, my wild abandon, up to my rescue, redemption, and rebirth as a functioning member of society, and a grown woman with a family of my own. In my early days, I wrote about pain, which was easy. The harder thing was to learn to write about all the joy and adventure of being happy and loved. It wasn"t until later in life that I found my community of artists and really learned to tell the tales from all the angles. I am indebted to the Fresno Rogue Festival, in California, where I first read for an audience and fell in love with receiving a standing ovation. Also, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Rogue Poetry Slam in Southern Oregon, where I learned to do competitive poetry and bring my best, and bring the poetry that I was afraid to share, that made my hands tremble and my voice quake, to sit in awe of the skill of other poets, and sometimes take home the money and win, even with the odds stacked against me, as other poets made the room jump and dance to their words. Oh, sweet victory! "If you have ever loved another, been passionate about anything, mourned a loss, been a parent, heck, been alive - this poet will move you! Her rhythmic words pulse with the beat that promises (like it or not) the continuum of LIFE." ~ Patti Thornton, in her review of Liesl Garner"s 2008 Rogue Festival Poetry Show