Letters to the Moon....

On October 1, 2016 I had the immense pleasure of giving my first book talk. It was for the Indiana Chapter of the Church and Synagogue Library Association. Many months of preparation went into the book talk. I had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. As part of my book talk, I was to give a speech, entitled, “Poetry in Motion.” I interpreted that title into my telling my journey as a writer. I have been a writer for six years. The story of my life as a writer is at once an epic tome, filled with stories of inordinate detail. Yet, it is also a short story, full of high points and ideas that rise above the minutiae.  There was so much to tell, so much to convey. How would  I begin to tell my story? I struggled with writing my speech.  I was to discuss how I began writing, how I began my blog, how I began to translate written works, what inspired me to publish my books myself, and how I went forming my publishing company. I was to then discuss the s...

Saturday September 24, 2016 was the annual 100 Thousand Poets for Change event. This is the first time in my career as a writer that I did not participate in the event. By the time I found out the date of the event, it was too late for me to prepare anything for the event. As it happened,  I already had plans for that day, plans that were years in the making. I was going to be a part of history. Three years ago I participated in a year of giving, making monetary contributions to different charities and cultural organizations for every month of the year. One of the contributions I made that year was to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. . At that point in time, the museum was beginning to tell their story, which was one hundred years in the making. Veterans of the Civil War began a movement to build this museum beginning in 1915.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/definitive-story-national-museum-african-american-history...

Vacation Time (A Letter to the Moon) Hello Luna! How are you? I am doing well. I thought I would make a change of pace and write you before your full moon phase tonight! I saw a news article that said your full moon phase tonight will be an exceptional one, with a harvest moon, super moon, and a lunar eclipse! I don’t know if I will get to see you tonight; they are predicting rain and cloudy conditions where I live. But I will look for you! I can’t wait to see the show! I wanted to write and tell you that I am going on vacation. I took a longer vacation on my birthday this year, which  I normally do not do. Because I took a longer vacation then,  I decided not to take vacation time in the summer. I lived to regret that decision. I have been feeling overworked and in need of a vacation for over a month now. Today is my last day at work for a while. I am excited to have some time off from work, to rest and relax. I heard a statistic this morning on a news ...

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to have my first book, “I am Hope”, reviewed in the Congregational Libraries Today magazine, published by the Church and Synagogue Library Association, abbreviated CSLA. The magazine has an audience of church librarians, librarians in synagogues, and in other places of faith. Here is the review of my book, published in the Second Issue of 2016: "The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines poetry as “writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm.”  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poetry This first poetic collection fits that definition perfectly. This lovely little first book by Esperanza Habla is graceful, poignant and definitely emotional. The book is also brave and honest. It takes great courage to write in a manner that opens oneself to people. This is a fine addition to the library for ...

My life has been controlled chaos of late. Everything is changing.  I have made some small, positive changes in my life of late. Yet I find I still feel like nothing is the same. And that is not a bad thing. I have been so busy in the last two months, publishing my latest book, writing my speech for the upcoming literary symposium, that I have been too busy to do anything else. I have not had time to sit and write, to fully express what is going on. I have not even had time to stop and think, to contemplate, to ponder, to dream. It is said that all writers, to be good writers, must write something every day. Even if it is a note to yourself to remember something, a list of groceries you need to buy, a list of activities for the upcoming weekend, etc.  I have adapted this practice into my life. I do write daily. I often write several times a day. When I write, it is usually sitting in front of a computer, typing letters onto a keyboard that become w...

The Latest (A Letter to the Moon) Hello Luna my friend. How are you? How have you been? I have been well.  I am sorry that I have not been able to write since your visit a few weeks ago. Things in my corner of the world have been incredibly busy of late. I have to tell you though, I love when you come and pay me a visit. I always smile when I see you in your full state, perfectly positioned in the nighttime sky from my bedroom window. My family is doing well. My parents and other family members have relocated to the coast, thousands of miles away. They have begun the arduous process of unpacking the boxes containing all of their worldly possessions. They have also begun to hang some of their art pieces, to make their new houses really feel like a home. Thankfully, I am going to visit my family in a couple of months! While I do not particularly like to fly, I am excited to see my family, their new homes, and the areas in which they have relocated. It is a new part of...

Archiving one's written work is a wonderful thing. Reading my own words in the form of a book is an all encompassing feeling. It validates everything I have gone through to arrive at where I am. It confirms every thought and emotion that went in to writing each and every poem. All at once makes thoughts and feelings in the book tangible. It makes them real. As I have written here, I see myself as a librarian of my own written work, the keeper of my archive of material. I have published two books of my written material to date, "I am Hope" and "The Bigger Picture." In an effort to weed through the scores of e-mail messages I have collected in the archive, I discovered a long lost poem. It is clear to me that I wrote it, though I do not remember writing it. Reading the words in this poem, I am instantly transported in time, taken back to when I wrote it. I wrote this poem in 2012, in the wake of a horrible break up of a relationship. The poem is almost a ...