Battle

by Sarah Franklin

You ever feel like a lone wolf walking in a sea of sheep? You ever feel like you're the only one feeling that exact type of pain? You ever feel like nobody could ever relate to your hurt? You ever feel like if you're alone for one more minute you'll either scream or go insane? This collection of poetry was created with two focuses in mind. One, I wanted to be able to process my life and my hurt in a way that felt healing and beautiful to me. Two, I wanted to create something that I could give to another and help them feel more understood and less alone. I hope that through this body of work, you will feel protected, heard, seen, and known in your deepest traumas, as well as your most profound joys.

We as humans are meant to connect. This is my effort to connect with and have an impact on those around me. As I wrote these words, it occurred to me that to heal is to write a narrative. Rewrite the traumas that have created your life. Give them new meaning and tell your story the way you believe it should be told. This is me rewriting my narrative into a beautiful tale of hope, love, loss, and connection. I've split these pieces into four life, love, pain, and soul. I believe that to live is to love, to love is to be in pain, and to be in pain is to be in touch with your soul. You cannot have one without the other. Something in this life is connecting us to each other and ourselves to the inner knowing we have within. Will join me on this journey of trying to figure out the mess that is our lives?

I hope you enjoy the ride.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2023

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Elrena Evans holds an MFA from The Pennsylvania State University, and is co-editor of Mama, Ph.D.: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Her writing has also appeared in Brain, Child, Hip Mama, MotherVerse, Literary Mama, Mamazine, and the anthologies Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers (Random House, 2006) and How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel (Seal Press, 2008). She is the Marketing and Publicity Manager for Literary Mama, where she also writes the monthly column Me and My House. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family and blogs at her website, http://www.elrenaevans.com. "