My name is Martha A. Maiani, a wife, sister, daughter, aunt, mother of three, and a grandmother.
I was born July 9, 1963, in Philadelphia, PA to two wonderful parents Angel and Marta. I am Puerto Rican and was born into a big family; I have six beautiful sisters, Lucy, Gladys, Mary, Evelyn, Vivian and Sandy. I have 3 beautiful children, Christina, Bobby and Denai. I have 12 beautiful nephews and nieces. And I am also happily married to my wonderful husband, Joseph A. Maiani.
Writing has always been a way of life for me, words I could not properly express I would put down in writing. Sometimes, I would surprise myself on how, writing my feelings down would turn into a poem or into a song.
I have been through it all in my life, through drugs, jails and institutions. I lost the most precious gift one could ever be blessed with, my children. It has taken me a long time to get to where I am today. I had to let go of the guilt and hatred, old people, places and things. I had to start a new way of life. Writing helped me to start a new life; by writing I have laid my past to rest. I have struggled with many tragedies in my life, me being my worst critic and enemy. I had to learn to like myself and to believe in myself, the way God intended it to be. I had to learn to forgive and let go, to love unconditionally to allow others to love me. I have had many obstacles in my life, but if you deal with one at a time, you can conquer them. If I could reach one person out there, to inspire them not to give up and to believe in themselves, then I know this book is truly a blessing. In this book you will find poems about good things, love, family, tragedies, abuse, addiction and sorrows. In each poem there is a piece of myself. My biggest obstacle was believing in myself and in the good within me, I had messed up so many times, that I lost hope. But taking it one day at a time and one crisis at a time got me here today. Better said, I like who I am today. I always believed that my mistakes were who I was, but I was wrong, mistakes don�t make you, they teach you. God Bless.
