Alyssa

I’ve known Ms. Michelle since I was little. She was an English teacher in my elementary and high school, and I remember her being always so passionate about our school paper which I wouldn’t have taken an interest in if it weren’t for her being so hands on about it. A creative, she’s brought in lots of improvements to it by encouraging students to write and teaching them to love and appreciate art.

I was also classmates with her daughter, Denice, so aside from being a teacher, I’ve seen up close how she is as a mother. She’s very loving and protective, as what mothers usually are; but she’s also beyond that. She’s a mentor and a friend—someone you can be comfortable confiding in because she has a deeper understanding of life than most of us.

When I read “What if Snowflakes Don’t Fall in Winter?”, it brought me back to memories of car rides with her and Denice and how she would tell us stories about love and life. Being a young teenager with no idea about romantic love back then, I based my ideals on what she has shared with us. And now years later after having experienced love and loss, this book feels so much like being back in that car, oblivious to the time spent and distance travelled, with her there affirming my feelings, guiding me to discovering more of what love and life really is and should be, only this time, it’s through her poetry.

In her next collection of poems, she will once again take us to a journey of finding love, what it means to love and keeping that love through all the triumphs and trials. A passionate lover of her craft, of life, and of love, it’s only fitting that these stories will be coming from her and that she now gets to share them to a larger audience.

I’m no writer, but I love how words can be effortlessly combined into captivating thoughts and I hope when you read her poems, you will find them beautiful and resonating as much as I did.

 

Alyssa Gemal

Licensed Civil Engineer

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“I Would Fly To Where You Are” available in KOBO.COM and Amazon (paperback and ebook copy)

Voting for “Love Dance” as Publication of the Month for May, in Spillwords is still on …check it out