The Story Behind the Poem My dear friend was very pregnant...and very sick. She barely had the energy to stand, let alone birth a child. We felt hopeless for her, unable to carry her child for her, only able to bring a few meals, clean a few corners. When I feel most powerless is when [...]
The Story Behind the Poem If you've been around here long enough, you may have noticed that I love describing feelings with color (humility, a loved one, seasons). These colors describe the prayer of one in pain. A deep pain that sadly, too many people have felt. The loss of a child. My dear friends [...]
The Story Behind the Poem Have you ever been found out? It's an awful feeling. Heart in throat. Can't eat. Breathe. Get out of bed. There's a process that starts with shame and ends with grace. If you know that feeling, you'll understand this poem. The Colors of Humility by Sarah Steele August 2014 Humility [...]
The Story Behind the Poem My husband gave me an hour (a whole glorious hour!) when our first two children were 22 months and 2 months old. I biked down to a coffee shop and sat outside, just soaking up the quiet. Even with the bustle of the farmer's market around me, I was alone [...]
The Story Behind the Writing For my 30th birthday, I knew I wanted to do something crazy, do something out-of-the-ordinary (for me), do something edgy. So. I got a tattoo. (All right, don't roll your eyes, all you crazy people out there.) It was a stalk of wheat and the word dayenu. The wheat represents [...]
The Story Behind the Poem The first three years of our marriage, we washed our clothes at a laundromat. Sometimes I'd bring a book to read, find the Sunday comics there, or paint my nails. Sometimes I'd go before work (5:30am!). Sometimes we went together. It was mostly...a good experience to be able to speak [...]
This poem is from the end of my first semester, freshman year of college. Being the oldest of ten kids had its crazies...and its lovelies. It took me a few months to come down from the high of Doing Whatever I Want, but I finally realized I reeeeeally missed my family. (My youngest sibling was [...]
I love the simplicity of such a short poem. I wrote the first one in high school and the second in college. As a high schooler, I felt quite scandalous using the word "naked" in my writing. But the second one rhymes, which you KNOW I love. Do you prefer one over the other? The [...]
In keeping with where I'm from and since this website is still relatively new and we're still getting to know each other, here's a different approach to the Where I'm From poem, talking specifically about my hometown. I Come From by Sarah Steele December 2008 I come from Otsego where the people "Come to Work, Come to [...]