Thoughts to Heal Your Soul: Poems and stories of Living with Parkinson's Disease, Human Condition, Tragedies, and Resilience

I began writing poems in 2021 to express my feelings, experiences, and emotions because I lost my musical expression outlet to Parkinson's Disease. When I realized I had compiled many poems, I decided to explore songs and poems I had written since 1985, and I noticed a recurring theme. I have always written about other people's sufferings, attempting to be a voice for them.

Thoughts to Heal Your Soul approaches human suffering and tragedies not by simply telling the stories of events but by capturing their emotions. The reader will feel the people's struggles, pain, sorrow, tears, joy, and resilience. The true stories lie in the feelings experienced while living and fighting through difficult times. Finally, this book accentuates the courage of these individuals to allow all of us to see the courageous person within us and be inspired to fight onward when things seem hopeless.

The true inspiration for this book, and the series to follow, came to me as I read The Greener Side of the Tracks, a song I wrote in 1985. When I wrote that song, my heart hurt for the thirteen migrants that died in the Arizona desert. I prayed for them and vowed that I would speak for them. Therein lies the reason for this book: so that I might speak for those without a voice.