Edwin Hofert

Edwin C Hofert 4-14-15 I was born in nineteen sixty the lion is my sign. All my clothes were handed down there was nothing I called mine. There were six of us called siblings we didn't turn out too bad. Raised by a single mother, raised without a dad. I used to love to be alone, I played all by myself. Bottle caps and string for toys, just one book on my shelf. One time sitting in my room there finally came the day. My mother came to where I sat and sent me out to play. Time went on the way it does I struggled to be cool. I made friends all on my own and found my way to school. Then came the day in the fifth grade I'd never be the same. The teacher said to write a poem, a poet I became. Times were hard and we were poor somehow we all got by. Laughing when the laughter came and learning how to cry. There were times throughout my life that there were things I'd lack. The worst times of my life it seemed, poetry called me back. Molested as a little boy there's things we can't control. He might have stole my innocence but God still saved my soul. Often in the dark of night, my prayers for childhood dreams. Drowning in the drunkenness and in my mothers screams. There's really not much more to say some things we cannot plan. Time went by the way it does and I became a man. Haunted by the memories I admit there's tears I cried. Told my father died when young then I found out she lied. Again my world came crashing down I crumbled to my knee. Once again I found my voice inside my poetry. Better for the life I lived not in the normal fashion. Somehow I learned empathy, somehow I learned compassion. Learning through my darkest days there's battles we can't win. But you can never lose the war if once more you rise again. So I'm standing once again through times as dark as night. Helping, healing others in the healing words I write. Edwin C Hofert