Poetry has always been a savior of sorts to me in that it provided a place to go when there was no place to go or no one to whom I could turn. When my feelings began to overwhelm me I just found a pen and paper and it all went away until the next time. These feelings run the emotional spectrum. However, most poems came at a time of high distress. I was the eighth of my mother's nine children. Being among the youngest I absorbed quite a bit of energy and inevitable stress from my older siblings, all of whom left home before I was nine leaving me with quite a bit to figure out on my own. The...