The Poetry Within: How I Discovered a Voice I Never Knew I Had

How meditation, self-reflection, and life experiences transformed my writing journey

I never expected to be a poet

Poetry writing came to me unexpectedly. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have a habit of writing stream of consciousness, either following a journal prompt or as a meditative practice, depending on how I feel on a particular day.

Although I tend to discard what I write, I review it before doing so. I found that this writing process took on a poetic “tone,” and I soon realized that I was writing poetry. Once I opened myself up to the process, it began to flow, and not just when I was writing stream-of-consciousness but at other times as well.

I have published three poetry books, namely Embody, Embrace, and Embolden. I will soon be adding a fourth book to that collection. And I have a series of nine poetry books in a collection called Renascence. The first book, Where I Call Home, was just released.

How my poetry evolved

You can say that my journey with the poetry books followed my growth as a poet. In Embody, my poetry was experimental. The poems were a way for me to feel and get to know the creativity within me. I explored a lot of what was going on in my being. With Embrace, I gained more confidence and acceptance in my creative process. The poems were a representation of accepting where I was in life, and seeing that life is a cycle that is ever-changing. When I was putting together Embolden, I had fully embodied and embraced my life as a poet, and it made me stronger and bolder in my perspective and my writing. The poems were about moving forward as a spiritual and sentient being, and that involved recognizing that I (and we) are a part of something bigger.

In Renascence, I go deeper. It is a collection of nine books of poetry exploring the many facets of what it means to be human. Renascence became the reflection of everything I had experienced—the questions I carried, the places I searched, the lessons I learned, and the person I was becoming. Throughout our lives, we search for meaning, belonging, love, health, identity, understanding, and connection. We seek to know ourselves more deeply as we learn to navigate our relationships with others and with the world around us. Our quests shift and evolve, often overlapping, leading us through seasons of growth, challenge, surrender, and renewal.

Written over years of introspection, travel, meditation, synchronicity, and self-discovery, these poems became snapshots from the soul—an exploration of trust, healing, and transformation. What emerged was a renascence: a profound rebirth that touched nine aspects of life.

Where I Call Home is the opening collection in the series. It explores the longing to belong through poems inspired by travel, transition, and the search for a city by the sea. What began as an external quest for the perfect place to live evolved into something much deeper: an inward journey toward self-discovery.

Through reflections on place, identity, intuition, and inner knowing, Where I Call Home reveals that true belonging begins within.

What I write about

When writing poetry, I write about what is happening in life, opening up to all aspects of it, the good, the bad, and the in between.  I draw ideas from my life and people you know. Everything I include in my poems is about my life and my interpretation of the world I experience. Sometimes my poems come from reflecting on strangers, and sometimes they come from reflecting after a conversation with someone.

I’m inspired by anything and everything. Because I tend to journal in the mornings, my dreams influence my poetry. But I also am inspired by nature, particularly the moon. I write a lot of poetry to the moon. But I also write about birds and flowers, and whatever I see. I feel poetry is good for capturing a moment in a flash, like drinking a cup of tea in the morning and watching the horizon change colors. I have also written about mundane things, like baking bread. I write about people and relationships; mostly it’s my feelings about them. And I write about myself and my emotions, and how I handle them or watch them take shape within.

How writing poetry has benefited me

Writing can be healing, and for me, poetry is not just a way to capture life, but a way to find healing. Writing also connects us to one another, helping us know that we are not alone, that there are others who experience what we do, or who notice the things we do. Writing can also be enriching, and we can learn from it. I hope that people can find healing and connection when they read my poetry.

For me, poetry became another form of meditation. Like stillness, it allowed me to listen—not only to my thoughts and emotions, but to something deeper within.

For many years, I saw myself through the roles I had created and the expectations I carried. Becoming a poet was a reminder that there were parts of myself I had not yet discovered. Sometimes freeing ourselves isn't about becoming someone new. It's about uncovering the parts of ourselves that have always been there, waiting to be expressed.

This is one of the reasons I created Uncaged: Free Yourself, Reclaim Your Life. So much of our lives are shaped by identities we inherit, create, or carry without questioning. The journey of freeing ourselves begins when we become curious about who we truly are beneath those layers.

You don't have to consider yourself a writer or artist to express yourself creatively. Creativity exists in all of us. It may appear through words, movement, cooking, gardening, music, or any other form of expression. The question is: what part of you is waiting to be expressed?