As someone who was trapped and nearly lost her life a few years ago, I can attest to the suffocating hell of not living life truthfully. I now am living my life honestly, boldly, on fire, and with direct purpose. I want to be known and I want my feelings to be known. No one I love will die not knowing my true feelings. Love should not be a secret. Love is not to be hidden but shone out like a light into your heart-world ... and I am, after all, a heart girl. "Jerri Lynn Sparks takes the reader on a journey into her own heart where we learn about love in all its incarnations. Her vision is vibrant, sensuous, vivid and painfully true. We find love in the rain and the juice of a plum and the planting of trees and the forgiveness of finches, as well as in a thousand black starlings and the many ghosts of loves lost. This is a volume to be sipped and savored. Accompanying this collection are photographs by the author, each a poem, in and of itself." David B. Seaburn