A very good question and one that I get asked a lot - how do you write the poems you do?
I started writing only in October/99 - just over 4 years ago - at the age of 51.
I started writing as a means of expressing a lifetime of repressed feelings and thoughts. I also wanted to describe what I went through on the healing journey of recovering from childhood trauma. Though I tried other methods of writing, I found that poetry was the best means of comunicating what I could not as a child.
I write from the heart, from experience, and with Spirit's guidance.
Some of my poems describe horrors of the past while some of them, the upbeat ones, better depict my now-healing soul.
Ironically, I actually wrote a poem about writing poems. I hope you like it.

Writing Poems

"How do you write the poems?"
They're always asking me.
It's kind of hard to answer them
Okay! Well now, let's see!

I write them down in pencil
A little bit at a time,
Line by line, verse by verse,
I try to make them rhyme

I start out with a topic
Then list what I should say
I think about the order
And then I'm on my way

Some of them are very short
They take less than a day
Some of them are more detailed
For there's a lot to say

Sometimes the words come easily
I hear them loud and clear
At others they refuse to form
Although they seem so near

And when I feel that I am done
I leave it for a while
Then I re-read and make changes
Until I get a smile

Love
Pam

Made me smile Pam ......... sometimes rhyming and rythm, (I can NEVER spell rythm, I've given up and don't try anymore), are so difficult to do. Your content is so very true to most of us, I'm sure we've all been there. Bursting at the seams, to convey what we mean!

Dear Pam:
You certainly do write from the heart, my friend! That is the ingredient so evident in your poetry. When one is able to bring other's emotions to the surface as you are able to do, it has to come from one heart to another. I find I release a great deal of stress and tension through writing, and I also examine the blessings I have and are so truly grateful for. When I am able to show my work, I pray it may help someone else to reflect on their own life and be grateful as well. Or perhaps escape for even a brief moment, their own problems in life.
Keep it up, sweetie. We are glad you are here with us.
Suzanne