Love Notes, Volume 1

By Cheryl Bradshaw

"some people live within the rainbows and niceties of life -- i live within my mind where hinges and trap doors creak and crack at every turn ... perpetually chasing after me"

These delicate, heartfelt poems allow you to explore the raw, heartfelt emotions we all experience in life--joy, sorrow, confusion, and above all ... love.

Readers are Saying:

"Beautiful poetry collection."

"The author's poetry is raw, honest and introspective."

"Cheryl Bradshaw has such a way with her words that make them understandable and felt." 

"This is one that I could read again and again." 

"These poems spoke to me and made me stop and reflect on my life."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pixie Publishing
• Release date: Jun 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201967611

Cheryl Bradshaw

Born and raised in Southern California, Cheryl Bradshaw became interested in writing at a young age, but it was almost two decades before she put pen to paper. In 2009 Bradshaw wrote Black Diamond Death (Book One: Sloane Monroe series). Within six weeks it entered the top 100 in two different categories and remained in the top 100 for over a year. Since that time, Bradshaw has written three additional novels in the series, and is now hard at work on the fourth. In 2013, Bradshaw introduced a new pranormal thriller series: Addison Lockhart, the first book titled Grayson Manor Haunting. Bradshaw is the founder of IWU on Facebook, a writers group with over 1,800 members. In August 2012, Bradshaw was named one of Twitter's seven best authors to follow.

Book preview

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, businesses, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner.  Any similarity to events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

First edition May 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Cheryl Bradshaw

Cover Design Copyright 2019 © Indie Designz

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form, or by any means whatsoever (electronic, mechanical, etc.) without the prior written permission and consent of the author. Thank you for being respectful of the hard work of the author.

to the loves that are my universe

thy presence keeps me strong

with

the

catching

ends

the

pleasure

of

the

chase

—abraham lincoln

Foreword

Love is many things, and it is experienced in many ways. What it means to me is different than what it means to you. But the feeling—what it feels like to be truly loved—by friends, lovers, family—I imagine much of what we encounter is the same. We’re connected that way, as humans.

I remember the first time I thought I was in love. I was in high school. My boyfriend seemed different than the other boys I’d dated, and like many high school girls, I believed what I felt for him was the kind of love that would last forever. The cliché of our future together was vivid in my mind—the picket fence, the children, suburbia—the perfect, cookie-cutter life I’d dreamed of for as long as I could remember. But I was young and naïve. Love had merely chipped the tiniest fragment from my fickle, childish surface. What I felt wasn’t love at all. It was infatuation.

The way I give, receive, and interpret love has changed over time. I’ve loved different people in different ways. I’ve loved, been broken by it, and found a way to lift myself up and love again. I’ve loved and lost and forgiven. I’ve loved and lost and not forgiven. And somewhere between the pain, suffering, and joy, I have learned to love myself in the process, to accept who I am—the good, the not so good, and the parts still in need of improvement. I am patient with myself and hard on myself in the same day sometimes. And that’s all right.

Wherever you are on your journey, love starts and