@McKinleyFreeman Vol. II

The "word game" was a challenge I would use to keep myself mentally fit for writing. I'd ask a friend to give me a word, and my challenge was to write an original poem, inspired by that word, in less than 5 minutes. It kept my mind fresh, open, and the nature of poetry very much alive. One night I had the idea to include my Twitter followers in the exercise, so I tweeted: “The first 10 followers that tweet me 1 word, I’ll write a poem based on that word”. Simple enough, right? Within 2 minutes I had over 300 words, which I thought was pretty amazing. As I explored these words, it became apparent that behind the veil of this exercise and the reach of social media was the need for hope, connection, love, faith, and inspiration. Words like "pain", "hurt", and "lost" were found in the midst of words like "love", "resilient", and "faith". So, this book represents my effort to write poems that capture the essence of the second set of 10 random words I received that night. There have been moments in my life that I've been inspired by the word of others. If I can inspire 1 person through a sentence from this effort, the whole process has been worth it.