Poetry has given me a voice to express the many emotions I am feeling at a particular time. I grew up in the era when children were to be seen and not heard. Childhood was difficult for me because I loved to talk, but I was not allowed or encouraged to address my feelings, nor was I even asked what I thought. I was the youngest child of four for eight years but still the baby girl. By the eleventh year of my life, I was no longer the baby; I became the middle child. People can't comprehend what that did to me, unless they have been there. I always enjoyed talking, which got me into trouble in school. I had lots of dolls, with which I was able to create my own world until I began to write short stories and then poetry. I came to an understanding of God's existence when I was about eight. I spent a lot of time talking to Him, especially when I was sad. I didn't really get to know the true knowledge of Jesus Christ and salvation until I was twenty-five. Thirty-five years later, I can no longer contain the love, joy, and peace that abide on the inside. My recent poems, mixed with some of my earlier poems, are being poured out for all to share and be partakers of God's grace and mercy. Allowing the Holy Spirit to direct and awaken in me emotions that I was unable to express has been a journey all its own as well as a true blessing. I have always loved poetry; it has a way of saying things that are soothing to the heart of the hearers instead of harsh to what they hear with their natural ears. The journey begins on the inside with the key that unlocks what the heart has to say. | From My Heart to Your Heart by Alicia G. Smith-Mackall, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters