About the Book
From the author of I Wanted to Grow Old With You and A Widow's Words comes a new collection of empowering poems and essays focused on life, love, and gaining wisdom and self-confidence as we age.
My Story is a compelling memoir composed of more than one hundred poems and essays that explore the author's life, inner conflict, and eventual journey to self-acceptance. This often poignant and frequently humorous collection explores personal issues that plagued the author in her childhood and teens and how the birth of her son was the catalyst that pushed her to triumph over anxiety, self-sabotage, and negative self-image, and ultimately led her to discover her love of creative writing.
The memoir touches on profound themes including generational trauma, anxiety, and widowhood, but also captures the joys of motherhood, the delights of love and marriage, valuable life lessons, and overcoming our inner critic to achieve body positivity and self-love.
Seniors will especially appreciate the poems devoted to the unpredictability of dating over sixty, the joys of grandparenting, and coming to terms with aging.
Beautifully written, My Story is an honest personal account of one woman's life journey that will resonate with anyone who has battled lifetime insecurities to achieve personal growth, self-acceptance, and inner peace.
A perfect gift for:
- Poetry lovers
- Women and men of all ages
- Seniors coming to terms with aging
- Anyone in search of positive and empowering books
- Gift-givers in search of unique presents
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LOST IN TRANSLATION
If love languages are a real thing
Then my father and I
Were from different countries
He was from the land of
You have a roof over your head
And food on the table
And want for nothing
While I work overtime to pay for it
On my one day off, I cut the lawn
Before cooking the Sunday dinner
And when you're older, and your son has no dad,
I'll fill that role, too
But I was from a different land
Starved for affirmation
Aware of every criticism
Longing for words he rarely said
I needed to hear
"I love you"
And now, I understand
That's exactly what he was saying
DNAI view the whole picture
Chance and fate
The ancestors who met
While living their own journeys
Some desired a new land
Channeled the wind in their sails
In pursuit of better lives
Seeking fortunes unknown
English
Scottish
German
French
Canadian
Irish
American
That all of them collided and became
the great
constellation
of my
ancestry
Seems miraculous
We are all the product of
a million
split-
second
decisions by
Hundreds of forebears
Those lucky survivors of
storms
wars
famines and
plagues
We are the result of
centuries
of
love
stories
Suddenly,
I feel
uniquely
meant to be
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Katherine Billings Palmer is an author, poet, essayist, and retired technical writer from Garden City, Michigan. Her essays have won numerous writing awards and she's been published in Westland Writes and the Bear River Review. Following her husband's death, she published two books about her struggles to cope with grief: I Wanted to Grow Old With You and A Widow's Words.
Katherine is a guest blogger for the Hope for Widows Foundation and writes about her grief journey at www.TheWritingWidow.com. Her biography and blog can be found at www.TheWritingWoman.com. She also posts and reads her poetry on Tiktok @thewritingwoman.
