Echoes of a Woman's Soul

Copyright © 2008 by Dianna Doles Petry.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Where I’m From

My First Home

Just a Writer

The Artist

Thoughts on Life

Sunrise

Heaven or Hell

A Stranger

Becoming a Woman

Tonight

Seduction

Into the Depths

Daydreams

Friends First

Thoughts of My Friends

He Worries

Too Late for Sorry

The Flame

The Prometheans

Every Song I’m Singing

Girl Talk

Starting Again

Second Marriage

A Frozen Heart

The Wonders of Life

Life Past Forty Years

Pearl of Passion

The Journey

See You on the Other Side

One Year Ago

Love

Settling for Dreams

My Dream is Reality

My Father

Just a Rose

Words

Life’s Journey

My Little Girl

Lost in my Wildest Fantasies

Healing Begins

Come to Me

Thinking of Kyle

I’d Walk With You

He Sang

Star Gazing

The Carousel

Evolving

Sweet Dreams

Blessings

Dreary Castle

I’m Missing You Again

Yesterday

I Remember Autumn

Life’s Handbook

Tears at Night

Stop the Pain

Reading Email

My Flag Flies Proudly

Just You and I Tonight

Dazzled

All That I’ve Seen

Pleasure

Last Good-bye

Yearning

Waiting

I Write

When a Man and Woman Love

Friend

Soul Mates

Mother’s Love

Easter Praying

Rainy Day Haibun

Aging with Music

Flexibility

Xenophobia

Obsequious

So Many Ways to Dance

Childish Joke

Praying For You

A Friend in my Heart

Jollification

My Man

Sweet Innocence

Listen

Walking Through the Past

I Want to be Wanted

Always the Nights

To Be Lovers

Shipwrecked with Johnny Depp

I Loved You Yesterday

Escaping Reality

Midnight Smile

Cleaning Frenzy

Oh, Mother

TAPS

Past and Present

Grandmother Told Me

In the Morning

Time for Everything

The Inner Clock

Playful

Bowling

He Makes Me Smile

A Pleasant Weekend

Thank You

He Doesn’t Know

Afterglow

Letter to Kyle

Happy Anniversary

Fading Time

Goodnight, My Lover

Two O’clock in the Morning

Thinking

Santa Monica Pier

Seasons

Itsy-Bitsy Spider

Humpty Dumpty

Saturday Past

Thought

Blue

Cup of Tea

I Am the Poetess

Painful Memories

Destiny Waits

Where Do I Go From Here?

Missing Something

It’s Okay to Cry

Words to Cole

A Friend in Yesterday

Late Night Thoughts

Promises

Graduation Day

Happy Birthday to a Special Friend!

I Am a Self-Proclaimed Writer

Invisible

Bonding

Route 60

The Whistle Blew

Bedtime

Growing Up

The Day You Were Born

The Front Porch

A Mother and Dementia

Mother’s Jewels

West Virginia Born & Bred

Chasing Butterflies

A Child

Eighty Today

The Last Visit

Becoming a Mother

My Friendship Offered Freely

For You My Friend

Memories of a Cherished Friend

You Give To Me

No Thanks Needed

In Need of a Friend

Loneliness

Aging

Lovers Greed

As I Sit Here Tonight

Golden Rings

Let Me Take You Above

When We Met

Tonight

9/11 in 2008

A Little Touch of Heaven

Friends Through it All

Missing You Again

Denial

Encouragement

Recipe for a Happy West Virginian

Took a Little Walk Tonight

Growing Older

Beneath the Stars

Star Crossed Lovers

Serenity

He Lied

Words for Kyle

Wasn’t it Yesterday?

In Silence

More Than a Crocodile Hunter

The Christmas Tree

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the many people who encourage me to keep on writing no matter how difficult life becomes or how frustrated I become.

It is in honor of my parents and grandparents who instilled in me a great love of life and respect for all who touch my heart as well as all living things.

It is for my children and my family for they give me a purpose and the motivation to explore my thoughts and my memories. Just as I carry on the traditions and dreams my ancestors handed down, my children will continue to carry them as well as new ones we have created together.

This book is dedicated to all of the women who have shared their life with me in Women With A Unique Soul, a ladies Internet web ring and chat group I proudly Co-Founded several years ago in the hopes of giving every woman a safe place to be herself. This group of women has become my sisters by choice. They have shared my triumphs and my failures, my happiness and my tears, my broken hearted moments and moments filled with love, laughter, hope and promise.

Thank you all for allowing me to soar high above the trials of daily life by encouraging me to use my dreams and allow my imagination to run free!

This book is a dedication to the memory of Kyle Pack-Doles, my nephew by birth, my child by choice, who departed this life on December 1, 2007. He will forever live on in my heart and in all the dreams I held for him that still flourish deep within my soul.

Special thanks to Anca Dumitrache who helped to enhance the cover image of Echoes.

Author’s Note

People all have similar traits and of course, the traits that make them different. We all feel happiness and we all feel pain. We all seek love and we all experience a broken heart at some point in our life. We are all on a journey with no set destination and we were given no choice in where or when the journey was to start. We can only make the best of the space we have between the beginning and the end of this wonderful adventure we call life.

I believe all people are different in many ways yet alike in many others.

I believe we all have thoughts, ideas and opinions that can make a difference in the lives of others. A kind word or gentle touch can often be more valuable than jewels, cash or material possessions.

I believe we can work together to offer comfort, support, laughter and encouragement to people in all walks of life. We can look past color, heritage, tradition and history to appreciate the value of a man or woman for what he or she offers to the world around them.

I believe we can celebrate the creativity and imagination we have been blessed with by sharing it with others.

We are thoughtful, playful, open and honest, supportive and a blend of sensuality and human kindness if we allow ourselves to be. We are learning from each new day of life.

My intense desire in writing this collection of poetry, is for you, the reader, to see how important you are and how all of us share the same needs, feelings, and even actions both within our families by birth and our families by choice. Sit back, take your shoes off, sip on a cup of hot tea or coffee and allow yourself to hear the echoes from my soul calling out to you through my poetry.

Please join me as I share a few of the writings that have come from my journey so far. I had thought about separating the different topics of my poetry but decided against it. Life happens sporadically, why should we not follow it that way with our writing?

~ Dianna Doles Petry ~

To know where you developed your beliefs and traditions, you need to know where your ancestors have been. George Ella Lyons composed a poem titled Where I’m From. This is my version of that work, completed from a template offered in a writing group. My personal thought is that George Lyons’ original poem has given many writers the inspiration they need to look into their hearts. We all carry bits and pieces of our ancestry woven into the fabric of our being. Once we find our strongest assets we gain enough strength to face just about anything.

Where I’m From

I am from the mountains,

Coal mines,

A little country church,

A coal company house,

Wooden slats, faded and weathered,

Covered with black dust,

Just as my father’s lungs were.

I am from Rhododendron,

White roses and daisies,

Blackberries and ginseng,

Polk salad greens and turnips,

All within easy reach.

I am from Scottish clans,

Grandmothers with German heritage,

Native American bloodlines,

Hard working, strong, determined,

Proud and intelligent,

Stern and compassionate people.

I am from a new generation,

Moving forward,

Learning from the past,

Traditions handed down,

Along with secret failures,

Hidden behind claims of success.

I am from You can be anything if you work hard enough.

God forgives those who ask forgiveness.

Treat others as you want to be treated.

I am from home churned butter,

Undershirts wore from October to May,

Vicks Vapor Rub to cure what ails you.

I am from Black Gold country,

Filled with biscuits and gravy,

Taters and ramps,

Chased with swigs of Moonshine.

I am from great-grandparents planting tobacco,

Grandparents surviving the Great Depression,

Parents who wanted a better life for their children,

I am from the scent of my grandmother’s kitchen,

Family gathered around a hand hewn table,

A worn Bible she carried,

Sounds of music intermingled