A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to watch my words come to life. Ironically, I find that words are inept to tell you how it felt.

The City of Highland Park is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year. The local poetry group sought out submissions of persona poems – those written in first person – of people from the city’s rich history.

I submitted three poems based on members of the Sheahen family. They traced their arrival to circa 1840 when Dan McAdams brought his family from Limerick. Nearing 20 years later, Patrick Sheahen arrived from the same area, and worked the McAdams’ farm. He then promptly married the eldest daughter and became the keeper of 215 acres with jersey cows providing a profitable dairy service and sparkling water from the well to those in town without one.

All three were accepted and along with about 18 more, became a performance by the ARTicuLIT Readers’ Theater. The performance was about an hour long and I hope to upload it to this site shortly.

This gives me validation – that despite the challenge to fins the right words at times, I have been developing my craft towards publication. Small ones, but I can say I’m a published poet and writer.

To look at the book further, or purchase (it’s only $8.00) just click on the link: