The poetry, thoughts, and musings, in this book, A Life In Rhyme, is not classical, traditional or modern day poetry, but rather the journey of a young girl that can be understood by the poetry she wrote. This is not just a poetry book, but also a notebook with places to post your own thoughts about your feelings. This poet was a sensitive child who grew up in an emotionally deprived environment, always seeking release from sadness, fear, and confusion. Finding no refuge, she wrote poetry in short and simple rhyme. The poems are classified according to her age when she wrote to express and relieve her pain. The cycles of her poetry would ebb and flow due to everyday life responsibilities. Her determination to find love, feel secure and safe, resulted in her insatiable need to have complete control over everything in her life, which only succeeded in bringing about more worry, anxiety, self-criticism and low self-esteem. She was at the mercy of everyone when seeking reassurance and affirmation, while at the same time, whipping herself into being perfect in everything she did for fear of making a mistake. When there is deprivation of love and security early in a child's life, the heart never fully heals from the scars that such deprivation produced, thus, for some, penning the words to paper is a way to purge the pain. No, this poetry book is not a book of scholarly poetry, but rather the written story of someone using the pen to scribe pain and heartbreak that cannot be assuage by any other means. Poetry is more than rhyme on paper. It tells the story of one's feelings about their life, their environment, their culture and whether their life's journey was easy or difficult. What was this poet's life like? Was it similar to your life and how you felt during difficult times? A lot of poetry was written in past centuries by scholarly men and some were Poet Laureates. A lot of their poetry was deeply philosophical, some sad, some about war, and some about everyday life. Unfortunately, women did not have as much honored recognition back then as the men did, except for a few notables, like Elizabeth Barrett Browning who will be forever remembered for her classic poem, How Do I love Thee... Past poets may help us better understand our own lives and realize that throughout the ages much has not changed regarding human suffering. We are in good company and not alone in our pain or grief after reading and connecting with some of the past Poet Laureates. During the 1800's poetry appeared to be the solace for a broken heart, pain and suffering. Poems can put into words what we are feeling. At the present time in this world there is a lot of pain and suffering. How does one cope? Can poetry help? Put this book on your bedside table within easy reach when at night you are feeling lonely or needing to reach out. This book of poems and the old Poet Laureates might reach back to comfort you.