Heart That Silence Built E-Book: Poems about adoption, trauma, permanency and family.

By Wendy Hayes

Healing from many of the unspoken pains of her adoption journey, Wendy explores themes of love, family, loss, grief, and trauma with this book. Silence, and it's impact on identity, is another major theme explored, with hopes that it will touch the hearts of so many adoptees that hold unspoken truths about their journeys. Wendy started writing poetry the year her younger sister was born, and this book features work authored between the ages of 12 and 30 from a complex adoption journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312571990

Book preview

the heart that silence built

poems about adoption, trauma, permanency, and family

Wendy Louise Hayes

Copyright © Wendy Hayes 2023

First Edition Published in 2021

Second Edition Published in 2023

ISBN: 978-1-312-57199-0

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All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Preface

This is the second edition of the heart that silence built. These are some of the changes made to the book…

Five more poems have been added! There were poems that I was hesitant to include in earlier iterations of this book. Getting the chance to hear and reflect on feedback from readers about poems from my younger years encouraged me share more of them.

Pronouns are important! After I published the first edition my sibling changed their pronouns to they/them. To honour their identity and the original words of my younger self, my sibling and I decided to update the narrative elements of this book, but leave the poetry true to when it was written. For this reason, you may see the use of sister/she in the poems and sibling/they in the commentary. They are the same person!

Each poem has an age under it. One of the important aspects of publishing this book was exposing parts of my story that had been silenced and honouring the work and needs of my inner child. While sections of this book had already been arranged chronologically in the first edition, the age at which each poem was written has been added. They have been re-ordered to reflect the timeline more accurately.

What does that word mean? Some of the language used in this book is more familiar to those with experience in adoption and children protection. If any of the terms used are unfamiliar to you, please take a flip to the back where I have added a glossary!

By buying the heart that silence built you are directly supporting the living experiences of adoption and child protection, first voice advocacy, and small business.

Beginnings

poems from