Stolen Excerpts (ePub)

First and foremost giving all praises and honor to God for sustaining me and allowing me to express myself through words, thoughts and phrases. For those that are close to me you know that I have been writing poetry for quite some time and have talked about writing a poetry book for some time. Initially it was more talk than action plus I thought would ever become reality. But as the years went by and I started accumulating a small collection of poems I deemed worthy enough to share with others outside my inner circle the thought began to seem more realistic. So I initially started drafting the book back in 2005 with the help of my Aunt Vanessa. I was still re-writing many of the poems since initially they were written in Ebonics style, you know da for the, cause instead of because. So there was some initial editing that was taking place. Then of course lifes trials and tribulation decided to intervene and press the pause button. Distractions came from every direction and I just could not devote quality time to the book. Meanwhile, my Aunt was working hard on the book cover and formatting the 1st draft of the poems I sent her. Things started to pick back up around the time I got married. Whether it was divine inspiration or my wifes intervention but either way I started working on the book again. This was late 2007 and things were looking good for a summer of 2008 release. Then once again a setback occurred, I found out my aunt had been battling cancer. Believe me when I tell you the poem book was the last thing on my mind. Its funny how mortality can restructure and reprioritize your entire program and what you deem important. After a year and a half of battling cancer my Aunt passed away on November 5th, 2009 five days before the birth of my daughter. Talk about a trying time; I attended the funeral 2 days after my daughters birth with my wife and child still in the hospital. A myriad of emotions dancing around in my head but as fate would have it poetry brought stability back to my spirit. I wrote several poems over the next couple of weeks that eased my spirit. So fast forward to the spring of 2010 and my beautiful wife finally said enough procrastination, this book is getting published and you have 3 months to make it happen. She found an online publishing company and made the initial contact. So it seems that it was destiny that I met her, married her and she forced me to get moving on this book