> What is your purpose in publishing your poetry?

The purpose is that I want to instill hope into others' lives. I want to show them the emotional roads I've travelled, the low points of my life, how lost I was inside, and how I overcame everything and ended up living, for the most part, a great life. I was talking to the 10th grade English teacher today (the guy I have my internship with), and he said that I could include a foreword (someone mentioned this earlier, I know). He said I could explain why I didn't edit anything and why I chose to include "bad" poems as well as "good" ones. They are all good to me, though, just because I know how I felt when I wrote them. Some of them make me very upset because it's hard to believe that only two years ago I felt on the verge of a mental breakdown, feeling as though I meant nothing and that no one cared. I felt all alone and then suddenly I could really open my eyes and see how beautiful everything is...and now I'm okay. I want people to see that growth, that change. I want them to be able to pick up my book, read it beginning to end, and be left speechless upon finishing it. I want them to know that people CAN change...that just because you made mistakes in the past and that you thought things weren't good, that life doesn't have to be that way. I want to change ONE person's life for the better through my writings. If I can change ONE person's life, then that person will change someone's life, and on and on until a whole buncha people are inspired by my writings. I want to help people understand that it's okay to feel pain, and it's okay to express your emotions. I want people to see that although you might feel unbelievably frail inside, there's always a seed of inner strength, just waiting to bloom into a beautiful flower. If I can help one person see the change I've gone through...and if they can change, too, then I will have accomplished what I'd set out to do. All I want is to make a positive difference in someone's life. I want to inspire someone...to instill hope in them...and to make them realize that not all emotions feel pleasant, but all of them can be woven into something amazing that you can look back upon and think..."Wow. Look where I was, and look where I am now. I thought I was no one. Now I am someone."

~Den-":-)"Kara