I was born in nowhere, West Virginia. Life growing up was anything but kind to me.

The road to my early 20s was very confusing, painful, and it felt at times that it was neverending. It seemed like my value to the world as a human being was nonexistent.

I thought I was just born to suffer, eventually die, and go back into the earth like any other wild and forgotten creature in this modern chaotic world. However, with tremendous effort and a lot of time, I have taken my pain and turned it into something beautiful.

This journey and its battles may not have made me stronger, as some people like to say, but it sure made me more creative and resourceful. This is the essence of pouding au pain - bread pudding.

It's a series of poems, written fully by myself, that detail bits and pieces of my experience feeling, growing, and healing through my journey. It's tasteful (no cursing, graphic depictions, or blatant NSFW remarks) but some of the content is clearly of a dark nature.

It's mostly abstract; as extended metaphors are my favorite rhetorical device, so it's up to you to find the meaning yourself and relate it to something in your own experiences. I hardly ever outright describe any particular life events through my writing, so even if the pain can be felt with the tone and mood of my poems, the specific realities of it is all up to your imagination.

That being said, I think it is work that it suitable for all ages. I hope with my vague style, which has slight influences from a lot of writers (my favorite being Emily Dickenson) that everyone can find something to enjoy with this book.

It is free verse, technically, but I tend to make up my own formats most of the time, so each poem should still have its own rhythm and flow that is unique to me as a writer. My best advice to anyone who is currently languishing in a world of empty darkness, take your pain (cause sometimes, that's all you have) and make something beautiful out of it.

. .

something that will inspire others to grow with you out of that place. Most of us start in that place.

Not everyone makes it out. If you need inspiration yourself, please check out my book.

Be kind & much love,Elizabeth O. Fly.