Thomas L. Poteet

I have started my day with prayer for most of my life; but, maybe four decades ago, I started getting up extra early and added writing to my prayer time. I began to pray, then to write what I was praying and to write what was going through my mind while praying. I found this time to be an extremely important time of my day. The time gave me energy. There was also an element of excitement to the creation of a poem. I would often read them and giggle; and that giggle came from a child in discovery. I would use words that I never remember using before. I’d have to look them up in our dictionary; and they would be correct. Not all of the poems were great, but many made me see life differently . . . made me see His Creation in a new light.

These early morning poems were stashed away for years; in folders by the year written. I refer to them often because they still give me strength. Now that I am retired, I have a little time to organize and publish. Early on, I put together a book of poems entitled, “Sing A New Psalm”. I placed a poem for each day of the year; the idea being that one could pick up the book each day and read a poem that either praised our Heavenly Father, asked Him for help or forgiveness, or questioned why we had moved so far from Him in our journey. This was important to me because He has been the Center of my life; and has gotten me through more than 50 years of work and dealing with others; often at times when I did not wish to deal. I wanted to share these songs to my Lord; so, I put them together in a book. It was not my first book, but it was my first book of poetry.

Since retirement, I began self-publishing my poetry consistent with themes. The first book, about grief, entitled “The Winds of Change” is the struggle of losing my dad at a time when I truly needed him. I’ve published an edited version of my very first book of prose, written in the mid-1980’s, entitled, “Pieces of the Puzzle”. I published an edited version of "Sing A New Psalm". And I published a series of poems and comments concerning questions and observations about my life; and my search for Truth, entitled "Musings".

When the pandemic began, I got busy publishing other works, including two books of prose and poetry entitled "Hold Them Each In Your Loving Arms" and "It's Our Blend That Makes Us Outstanding". I also published a four-volume set of my web-postings from 2011 until 2020, entitled "My Journey: In Poetry and Prose". I followed these with both "Mornings with Father" and "Evenings with Father". My last book of poetry published was entitled "Book of Prayer".

I continue to write; just not as often, so please join me in my journey . . . we have a lot to learn from each other.