To understand my writing journey, you first need to understand my reading journey. They are connected but not how you might think. I never set out to be a writer. In fact, if you told me in school I would be writing and poetry no less, I would have laughed!
I was terrible in school at what we now call ELA (English Language Arts). I had to be put in a separate class for reading help. I didn’t comprehend well what I read and so I didn’t like doing it. I struggled my way through assignments, not testing well because of the comprehension struggle. It wasn’t till after high school, that my mom and I started putting pieces of the puzzle together. I have not been formally tested but have symptoms for a mild case of dyslexia. This explained all the struggles in school.
As I got older, the symptoms grew. My husband has been wonderful through this game my mind plays. Our check book was a mess from all the number transposing I did when we first got married. When the books didn’t balance, I couldn’t find the mistake no matter how hard I tried, yet my husband could see it right away.
When our kids were little, I would read them bed time stories. My husband grew up loving to read and I wanted our kids to love reading like their dad. So I got a library card and started taking our first child to the library at age two. All those books I didn’t read as a kid, I was now reading to ours. So many great adventures to be had in a book and great vocab builders, too. This went fine, till our kids learned to read. Then, they would call out all the mistakes I would make. “Mom, that is not what that says!” I would ask what I said and sure enough, what my mind read is not what my mouth said.
Dyslexia shows up in speaking and typing too. Sometimes when I say something, my family will laugh and say, “say that again” or “what did you say”? I know whatever I tried to say came out all jumbled up and we laugh about it. When I type, I have learned I need to proof read very carefully otherwise what I send wont make sense to the reader. I have found that my sentences are not complete, several words are missing or out of order. Sometimes letters are missing from a word or all the letters for the word are there, but all jumbled up. In my brain I have typed it as I should but when I go back to read it, sometimes things are a bit off and I sit there wondering how that happened.
Another thing to note is that dyslexia for me is not predictable. These things don’t happen in every moment but often enough, that it is a normal part of my life. I asked my husband the other day for an example of something I said all twisted up. He said he couldn’t think of one because it is so normal in our home; he’s gotten used to it. A few days later I was explaining to our kids what their dad would be doing for work that day. That he wouldn’t be hauling logs because the log job wasn’t ready. However, that is not how it came out! He wouldn’t be working the “job log” that day. Wait, what? “The WHAT job mom?”, my kids asked.
Fast forward to 2011. My dad was having a birthday and I was asking my mom for ideas for a gift. She suggested writing him a poem. I didn’t know how to right poetry but for some reason I accepted the challenge. I chose rhyme as the style to write in and with a picture for inspiration, I wrote my first poem. This was the start of a journey I didn’t know was beginning. Rhyme works with my dyslexic brain. That was the only poem I wrote that year. The year after that, I didn’t write any. The next few years, I just wrote a couple. It was six years later, I realized that I was gaining confidence and maybe I could prioritize writing poetry. I had young kids then, so there wasn’t a lot of free time. I set a goal for six poems a year. A couple years writing like this and I naturally started writing more often. That is where my journey took a turn, writing when inspired.
Soon I was feeling the pull to share my poetry. What good are poems if they are filed away somewhere no one can read them? The life changing year of 2020 came with all of its challenges. Our kids were home, learning on computers checked out from the school they attended. I had a Kindergartener on one side of me and a 1st grader on the other side, helping both at the same time. There was some down time when they were working but I needed to be close and so I put my computer in the middle. It is here, in these moments, where I started formatting my first book. I had to sit and be available, so what better thing to work on in the free moments between school work. Island Rhyme was indie-published in 2021. I kept writing and in 2023, Inspired joined my other book for sale.
As an introverted author, writing from my chair is the most comfortable place for me. However, that doesn’t help me share my poetry. With the encouragement from my husband, I stepped WAY out of my comfort zone and did my first book fair in 2025. Doors started opening for sharing what I write. I was invited read a selection of poems at the local Mother’s Day Tea and share one of my poems with the local Woman’s Club. Open Mic events were were hosted in a family friendly setting and so I stepped out again to share my poems.
I still struggle in every way I mentioned but I have learned ways to deal with it. I have this hidden fear, that at one of my poetry readings I will jumble my words as I’m speaking. To try overcome this, I read out loud my selection several times, in hopes that it will help keep the words in order.
I can also say I wouldn’t be a writer with out having this struggle. The journey has shaped me for who I am today. I am still the worst at spelling and grammar but I haven’t let that hold me back. If anything, writing rhyming poetry has almost been like a brain exercise or therapy in dealing with dyslexia. My friend once reminded me that God can use our weaknesses for good. I thank Him for the gift to write and see inspiration. I really do enjoy the process and even more, enjoy watching a smile emerge as someone reads my work. If my poetry has made a difference in your life, given you a joyful moment, or spoken to you in any way, to God be the glory.
Now you know the back story on how I became a writer of rhyming poetry! Thank you for your support!
Home Page 