Exhale  (Paperback, Gagana N.V.)

I have always known that my calling has been to unravel myself. To speak. To assert and stand up for myself. I have often sensed poems coming to me, and through me, getting written down, almost as if on their own. Writing, like breathing, to me is an act of being alive. I recognize now clearly how my poetry is an expression of my inner forest. It is an outlet. An outpour. An offering. There is a song that sings itself and is all pervading and beats in your heart and mine too. It is the essence of that song that I am trying to capture and disseminate with my words and actions. To see deeply. To listen deeply and to say it in a way that the other may be touched and moved by it. To forge a connection or an exchange - that has been my goal. My teen years and my 20's have been a period of awakening. Of shaking myself up to the reality. Of aligning myself to the song I kept hearing. Of seeing the world for what it is and of seeing myself for who I am. I continued to read and write and speak but not merely with words. Words can only take us so far. I now realize that what I have been after all along, is simply beauty. And magic. And the ever-present bubbling bucket of joy in our tummies. It is this that I seek. And Express. And hold dearly with devotion. Today, as a teacher, a writer and a forever-learner, I am glad I can finally say what is it that my heart and soul and body loves. I finally have some answers to my wanderings and wonderings. I am on a journey of learning to revere every moment of my life. To be at peace and in acceptance of myself. And I am listening to that song that sings itself. This song is the thread that weaves around our entire world. This collection of poems is to honor the life that flows through words strung together with intent and heart. It is to honor the urge that I am possessed with to write, write and write, daily and incessantly, through every conscious moment I breathe in and out. I know not how to live in any other way. This is my exhale. And I welcome you to linger on, and savour the verses brimming with life and flavour. They have come through me but they belong to the universe.