"May I say again how much I loved your poems about your mother? They took my breath away." --Marilyn Raichle, The Art of Alzheimer's Year 2 Poet goes beyond a traditional book of poetry by sharing the lived experiences of a second-year poet. Year 2 Poet is an ideal book for people struggling to make time for their creative selves, students of the language arts, women, contemporary poets and artists, caregivers, and others feeling awkward in their own creative skin. It offers ideas to play with, an imagination boost, inspiration, moral support, and poetry. "Your poems are stunning. Reading the poems, it literally felt like something was cutting into and gripping my spirit - emotions caught on a hook. In a good way - an alive way. You've done it - you have expressed fullness of an experience, in a way that others can enter in. Thank you for sharing " --Marigrace Becker, UW Medicine Memory and Brain Wellness Center This is the second book in a 5-year series about the experience of recognizing and embracing your artist self. Year 1 Poet explores the question "Are you an artist?" Year 2 explores "What does it take to keep creating - to keep prioritizing your true self - no matter what else happens?" From Lori... This year, I learned to embrace a growing willingness to disconnect from others whenever I needed to. I began deepening friendships and partnerships with other creators. With the spare time and energy I received, I became increasingly creative about prioritizing writing no matter what else was happening (during what turned out to be the hardest year of my life). For example, I began taking advantage of spare moments to write micropoetry and micro-stories, and sharing them via Post-it notes, beach rocks, Twitter, and Facebook, which made me feel like Emily Freakin' Dickenson for at least 30 seconds each day. The more we feel like creators, the more we're able to follow our artist selves, and our own curiosity, down new rabbit holes of wonder.