My Portfolio

My Portfolio

Open publication - Free publishing

Kindness comes in all shapes

Gifts Of Love

Created for me by Martha Perez

 

I write poems, that is basically the extent of my talents.  My abilities to create promotional material is very limited.  I had begun to figure out PicMonkey and Animoto then they both became paid sites so that ended my attempts at mastering anything.  My internet is flaky at home because I live in the middle of nowhere (and Verizon cannot even decide which state I live in so it jumps towers).  As a truck driver, it jumps towers so much I lose most of what I am trying to upload.  So I basically gave up.

 

As you can see from the above picture, I did not give up much!
Lucky for me I have friends who are kindhearted and create stuff for me.  Jessica House has created numerous pictures for my poems and even created the cover design for Words On The Wind!  

 

 

 Other friends created my videos and other promotional pictures.  Barbie Liddle, Jenny Bynum,  Karina Kantas ,  Aileen Aroma and  M.C.V. Egan to name a few.

 

Erika M Szabo  is another dear friend who has done so much for me.  She has created a gif for me of all my books, reformatted and uploaded them all to D2D.  My latest books which make up a 4 book collection, she enhanced creating visual masterpieces.  Her tender heart found a way to honor my daughter even more in the section of her poems.

I wish to thank them all.  Their generous offerings are so appreciated. They were not obligated to do anything for me, it was just their kindness, pure and simple.

So, when you read about "authors" who send "trolls" out to defile someone's name and talent, consider these wonderful people and know the bad apples are not in the majority!

Find Me:

Website:
http://carternovels.com/author-cindy-j-smith.html
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/cindysvoices
FB:  https://www.facebook.com/CindysVoices/
GOODREADS:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6505989.Cindy_J_Smith
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/cindyjsmith1/

How It Came To Be

Words On The Wind

 books2read.com/Words-On-The-Wind

I decided to have all the new poems I had written since Rhymes Through Time edited.  QUIET! Please? was to be my next published book, but I could not find anyone who could make a cover that would connect to the first two. (To be honest, after seeing how easy it was to just randomly select poems instead of sorting them, I was not looking very hard.) Several Facebook friends who had been reading my poems as I wrote them kept asking me to publish another collection.  So, I made a poll and asked, "If I were to publish another book using randomly selected poems, what would you name it?"  Several people offered suggestions.  One, Jessica House, not only suggested a title, she actually created a cover for the book!  How could I possibly ignore such love and support? I let them decide how many should be included then set about choosing. I pulled out my trusty hat, put all the titles in and picked poems.  The order is the way their titles were picked.

POEM

You feel the rhythm
And also the words
Mind creates a path
Where once all was blurred
The voice you're hearing
Is really your soul
Listen, it can heal
Your heart, make it whole
This poem is all you
The words and the rhyme
See thoughts you've hidden
Deep down in your mind
If you see nothing
You must be afraid
To let the real you
Escape from the shade

Find Cindy on her:

Blog:
https://cindysvoices.blogspot.com

Website:
http://carternovels.com/author-cindy-j-smith.html
Twitter:  @cindysvoices
FB:  https://www.facebook.com/CindysVoices/
GOODREADS:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6505989.Cindy_J_Smith
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/cindyjsmith1/

Full sentences written by a poet!

Can it really be done for an entire read-worthy post?

Well, no way to find out until we try.  Are you game?

Poetry is really a very easy genre to write.  I never have to worry about coming up with names or background info to keep people interested.  Poems are short, not much time is wasted should one not meet a readers personal taste. I think that is why they will often give a poet more than one chance to tantalize.

Personally, I believe English teachers are the main reason people shy away from poetry.  Having a person in authority telling you what you think a poem says to you is not correct will certainly curb your desire to read more.  In fact a teacher is why I did not share my poems for most of my life.  I turned one in for an assignment and was in shock when it was returned to me. I had never seen that much red ink on something with my name on it!  I did rewrite it to meet her criteria.  Unfortunately, although it was a nice poem, it no longer said what I did in the original version.

Instead of cringing when someone asks if you will read a poem, think for a moment.  Poetry is everywhere and you do too like it!  The songs you sing, the cards you send, even the advertising jingles that are stuck in your head are all poems! How they make you feel is absolutely what the poem means.  The meaning of poetry lies in the heart and soul of the reader, not in the ink flowing from the poet's pen.

LIFE JOURNEY

Each moment is a step towards our future

A journey into unknown territory

Fraught with potholes and pitfalls

We try to avoid as we move forward

With relentless determination

To be elsewhere

Believing we pave the road to our life

Creating a straight path to our past

Which we can travel at will

But as we try to return there

We find the way unclear

For all the pitfalls and potholes we missed

Or maybe we just crawled our way through

Still dot the way

Hidden in the shadows 

And we fall into them

Forming a new past

That will lead us to a different future

As we pave the detour

In our life journey

Re-blogged: Voices In My Head

Poetry from the Heart

books2read.com/Voices-In-My-Head

Voices In My Head is the first collection in my "Jasmine's Wish" series. My daughter, Jasmine, organized poems I had written over the years in an attempt to get me to publish.  After her death, and because of the encouragement of friends on Facebook, I added all the new poems I'd penned to her categories. The poems cover all aspects of life. Nature, time, feelings, politics are all fodder for my rhymes. I recommend this book to anyone seeking understanding as many viewpoints are examined.

AURORA BOREALIS

In the land of the midnight sun

Before months of forever night

The fairies gather up their dust

To perform their astral delights

They fill the sky with light

Weaving their slender silken threads

Using only the palest hues

Of lavenders, yellows, and reds

Fairies fly on gossamer wings

Trailing their glowing webs behind

They dance together in a show

Making ever-changing designs

The Aurora Borealis

Fills Alaska’s sky at twilight

Fairies bringing sweet hope to all

With their gift of Northern Lights

Find Cindy on her:

Website:
http://carternovels.com/author-cindy-j-smith.html
Twitter:  @cindysvoices
FB:  https://www.facebook.com/CindysVoices/
GOODREADS:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6505989.Cindy_J_Smith
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/cindyjsmith1/

My Voices

My published books

Cindy J. Smith has written poetry, and with every experience in life, she has found inspiration. Wife, Mother and Grandmother, she has a myriad of beautiful memories to draw from. Never having been good at playing the part of "starving artist", she has had many careers, but her current one, an over-the-road truck driver with her husband, Dave, has provided amazing opportunities for inspiration in her later years.

books2read.com/Voices-In-My-Head

 Ever want to get a second opinion on life? In this first book of poetry series, Jasmine's Wish, Cindy has had voices giving her theirs all her life. With straight talk and sarcasm, they rhyme their views to her. In this first book, she offers you a glimpse of the path she has been traveling while seeking her way in this world.

books2read.com/They-Wont-Shut-Up

 In this second book of poetry, Jasmine's Wish, Cindy's voices continue their relentless sharing of their opinions.Touching on many of the emotions and life situations humans encounter, they offer their viewpoint in the hopes of finding the path to peace. At the end of the book, Cindy has shared a small section spotlighting the works of her angel daughter, to whom this book is lovingly dedicated for her Birthday. 

books2read.com/Quiet-Please

After being alluded to many years ago in Rhymes Through Time, I have completed QUIET! Please?, the third book of Jasmine's Wish. This selection of poems is arranged in categories as are the first two books in my "Jasmine's Wish" series. My voices have been writing poems for my entire life. Their constant jabbering is taking its toll. Despite my begging and pleading for quiet, they keep talking. Come on over and see how they can write about anything at any time. The categories may be set, but the topics are as varied as grains of sand.

books2read.com/SilenceByCindyJSmith

This is the final book in the Jasmine's Wish collection. Life is too short to get stuck in a rut. Luckily for me, the voices show me many different views of the same situation so that is never an issue. Despite their varied revelations, I am relieved they've finally begun to give me moments of peace. (Perhaps it is because I forced them to work everyday last year.) Whatever the reason, I do enjoy the quiet even though I miss them when they are gone. When they do return, I am still amazed that after all these years their rhymes are still unique blendings that reveal truths I never noticed.

 books2read.com/Words-On-The-Wind

This time we float along like an Autumn leaf on a breeze, pausing here and there before catching the wind and flying once more. Each stop is a unique view of life and the world before us. Come on in, and see if you can catch the words on the wind.

books2read.com/Rhymes-Through-Time

You will not find sex, violence, blood or gore, and nor will you find vampires, zombies or ghosts. You will find poems about fleeting and elusive moments captured in rhyme through the sands of time.

 books2read.com/365

This collection was created from my 2017 New Years Resolution. Seeing and hearing various remarks about the new year being "a clean slate" and that "each day is a new page in life write something fresh" inspired me to vow to write a poem everyday. I do write almost everyday so I challenged myself to collect the very first poem, no matter the topic, as the day's offering. No theme was involved, everything was fair game. I wanted to be able to look back and see if perspectives really do change daily. I offer everyone a ride on this poetic rollercoaster, where life changed at the speed of a turned page.

books2read.com/Caesar-And-The-Bluebells

Caesar lives on a farm with his owner, Lori. Caesar is a retriever who loves playing in the field of bluebells while protecting the farm. Lori puts two gnomes in her garden for decoration. Caesar thinks something is not right about them. The next May when Lori and Caesar visit their bluebell field, it is destroyed. The fairies are worried. Their queen is missing! Caesar knows the gnomes are involved. Can Caesar find the Queen and fix the mess?