My Poetry Story
The written word has always been a passion of mine from a young age. There is a hidden beauty in the way poetry speaks to the soul, explaining the emotions that mere words can't carry. I began writing poetry at 13 as a way to explore the complexities of my inner world. It started as a private act of creative expression, a quiet attempt to make sense of what I was feeling. Poetry has always been an escape for me, to slow down and claim sovereignty in a fast-moving world. At age 16, my English teacher encouraged me to keep writing, and she convinced me to submit one of my poems named Winter, for a writing competition.
I didn’t realize then just how significant my early writing days would be
WHAT THE SILENCE GAVE ME
My first poetry book
“The privelege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are ”
In the quietest hours, when the world fell away, I listened — and the silence answered.
What the Silence Gave Me is a debut collection born from healing, heartbreak, awakening, and deep self-remembering. These poems trace the arc of transformation — from loss to clarity, from stillness to selfhood — revealing what waits on the other side of pain when we finally stop running and learn to sit with ourselves.
Working on What the Silence Gave Me has been one of the greatest joys of my life. It helped me rediscover my love for the written word and brought me closer to wholeness. This collection carries pieces of me — some written over a decade ago — woven together in truth and transformation.
Through raw confessions, cosmic reflections, and soft moments of wonder, I invite you to explore the power of inner truth, ancestral memory, and the courage it takes to choose yourself, again and again.
This book is a return to voice, to softness, to fire. To the divine in the quiet.
Click below to learn more about this collection and launch dates
Featured Poems
Thank you for reading.
These poems are pieces of my becoming. If something here moved you, then my words have spoken.
With love,
Henrietta
Learn about my writing process below.
-
Looks are deceiving —
smiles tell a thousand lies,
faintly hiding the misery
that reigns in my heart.The world pushes and pulls
in ways I do not want —
a path dead and decayed,
eroded by winds and time.Leave me here,
alone in the dead lands.
Where only dust knows my name,
where time will wash me clean. -
Perfection—
a poison we take,
a faith so cruel,
we didn’t choose.The heaven we seek
is buried
within thought, soul
and skin.Kill the lies.
Spread its ashes
to edge—
and end.The end.
Always,
the end. -
Follow me
to the start—
to the space between then and now,
in the waiting,
in the becoming.I sit here
in silence,
in stillness,
in knowing.I feel the soil beneath my feet,
the heat on my brow,
the wind in my ears,
the shivers on my skin.The scent of you draws closer.
I watch the space between us collapse.Our souls align.
Longing stirs—
here,
in this moment.It won’t be long now
before we meet.So, I wait
in the silence of knowing,
in this space
between then and now. -
My heart was with nature.
My feet felt the heat—
in crimson summer—
long before I knew
this earthly soil…Long before my soul
chose my body—She was the music.
She was reason,
rhyme,
and truth.Before I took form,
before I took flight,
I was beauty.
I was love.
I was a distant star
whose radiance
defied capture.I used to call it a curse—
this life of mine—
a life the others envied
in silence,
and in screams.They saw the glow,
not the burn.
They saw the fire,
not the forging.I scorched the earth
with my gaze.
And my voice,
I sang a song so wistful,
I moved to a rhythm
only the ancestors knew.Somehow,
I forgot
this sentient glow,
the heat within me,
this solar tide—
these luminous skies.But I will never forget the star
that blessed me
a thousand years ago—before I took form,
before I took flight.
I was nature.
I was music and soul.
I was the sun. -
Le hasard était atypique,
Calme de nature,
Et pourtant, si turbulent.Il est arrivé
Alors que je menais
Une vie tranquille,
Peu curieuse,
Trop sérieuse.Son éclat m’a secouée,
A failli m’étouffer,
M’a figée sur place.J’ai stoppé un instant
Pour respirer,
Pour ausculter sa présence
Avec curiosité.Tout a changé.
Rien n’est comme avant.
Cette vie-là
N’est plus à moi.
Une autre m’attend —
me promettant
La lune et le soleil
les fleuves et les océans.Elle me dit :
Ne crains rien.
Plonge dans l’abondance.
Éveille ta curiosité,
Brise tes chaînes,
Peins ton destin
De couleurs diaprées.Le hasard m’annonce l’avenir —
Que je l’accepte ou non,
Je suis à l’écoute.
Et je le serai,
À tout jamais -
C’est un geste gentil,
Pourtant, j’ai l’impression
Qu’il n’est pas suffisant
Pour toi, si brillant.Ta présence dans ma vie
M’a éveillée à la magie.Quand le monde me paraissait immense,
Et mon souffle perdait le rythme,
Et mes jours étaient vides,
Tu étais toujours là.Et pourtant, te dire merci
Me semble un geste inassouvi.Les jours défilent —
Je m’arrête un instant
Pour me rappeler ta lumière,
Les ombres que tu as dissipées,
Le sourire retrouvé,
L’espoir grandi.
Le rire, contagieux
Grâce à toi.Te dire merci
Est un geste inachevé.Que cette langue prête
Les mots, pour te dire
À quel point ton amour est sûr,
Tes leçons, éternelles.
Merci infiniment.Merci
“I was the sun.”
A reflection on “Summer Heat”
Summer Heat is a remembrance — a return to origin. It speaks from the perspective of a soul that has always carried light, even while forgetting. The poem explores what it means to be born of nature, of music, of cosmic fire… and to lose touch with that truth in the noise of the world.
It moves through the tension between perception and reality: the glow others see versus the burn that is lived. The poem becomes a quiet rebellion against invisibility, against being misunderstood — and in its final lines, it rises into full self-recognition.
To say I was the sun is not just a metaphor. It is a reclaiming. A declaration. A truth spoken not from ego, but from memory.
This piece is for anyone who has ever dimmed themselves to be accepted, who has ever mistaken their power for a flaw, who has ever forgotten how divine their essence truly is.
May it remind us all:
We were never lost.
We were always the light.