My husband's passing in July 2009 after a one-year battle with cancer, I began to research and read books on spiritual awareness, searching for an understanding on the purpose of life. What are we doing here? What is our purpose? The authors that I encountered through my research and discuss in the Acknowledgments section of this book of poems opened a window in my consciousness causing me to begin writing my book of poems, one by one, documenting my feelings and clear understanding. I did wrestle, initially, with the composition of my poems because I knew exactly what I desired to express--feel the words, feel deeply my understanding of what I express in my poems--and live that understanding, that knowing, in each moment of now.I composed my poem, "To Live in the Past," because I desire to share a part of me that existed in my past of this lifetime. I was just a teenager--fourteen years old--entering my first year of high school. I had no awareness in those moments of now of what was taking place within me when, all of a sudden, I became aware of my resistance, of my struggling to stop stuttering. I let it go; I let it be; I set it free. An awareness took over my consciousness in those moments of now, allowing me to see, to let it be.Raised Catholic, I am not a devout or anything. All religions point to the same Source--the Godhead of us all, our Divine Father and Creator of all that is. I desire to enrich the lives of those who may read the words in my book of poems. I consider my writings, and have since the beginning, a small gift book of enlightenment--spiritually speaking--to be referred to again and again.

--Martha Woodruff-Duncan

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