Life Lived In Poetry

# “Life Lived In Poetry” is Pat Morrell-Donnelly’s eleventh (11th) book to publish. Pat published ten books in sixteen years. Pat is an Author and a Poet. #“Life Lived In Poetry” is a collection of Pat’s poems she wrote from the early nineteen-eighties through 2024. Pat’s poems cover much of her life’s journey, through her ninety-five years of living. These poems describe what was going on in Pat’s life through the years, the challenges, failures, losses and God’s intervention. Poems reveal verbal and emotional abuse in her marriage, along with poems about adversity and grief. Some of Pat’s poems are inspirational and motivational, some speak about her successes’ along the way. Some tell about Pat’s faith, the overcoming of obstacles, memories of loved ones, and her hope to see Heaven one day. One devastating loss was the loss of her beautiful mother whose life was “snuffed” out in a moment by a drunk driver. Her mother was forty-five years of age. At the same time her father and young sister were critically injured. Then, there were the sad losses of her sister and only brother to cancer. She suffered all of these traumatic losses, plus great financial losses. Some of the titles of Pat’s poems are, A Brighter Day, A New Beginning, Be Who You Are, Don’t Quit, Expect A Miracle, Heaven My Home, Learning To Cope, New Seasons, Survival, This Is My Quest, You Have The Power, and Why Despair? Pat’s first book, “The Climb Up Life’s Mountain,” was published in 2009 when she was eighty years of age. It contains 122 motivational and inspirational type poems. 2010, “Poems For Conservatives,” political-type poems Pat wrote between 2008 and 2010. This book contains cards and letters and responses from President Ronald Reagan, President George H. W. Bush and President George W. Bush. It also contains President Reagan’s original signature which Pat obtained when she met him at the 58th annual real estate convention in San Francisco. 2011, “My Journey As A Realtor,” about Pat’s experience’s over fifty-one years in the real estate profession as a Realtor/Broker in the Bay Area of Northern California. 2013, Pat’s fourth book, “Honoring.” Poems honoring God, Family, Friends and Country. 2016, “Poetry Breathes Life Into Bible Characters,” ninety poems about people’s lives in the bible from Abel to Zipporah. 2019, “Poems And Stories About Cats And Dogs And Various Critters.” These are stories and poems Pat wrote about her animals, the joy they brought and the deep loss when the animal passed. 2021, “The Best For Last,” Pat’s seventh book to publish. This book begins with fiction, then memoir about a portion of Pat’s life, ending in fiction. The book tells about verbal and emotional abuse Pat suffered in her marriage until that husband passed away. Thankfully, towards the end of Pat’s life, she would know fifteen very happily married years with the “love of her life.” 2022, Pat’s eighth book, “Poems For Conservatives” Volume 2, contains poems written between 2010 and 2022 depicting events going on from day to day in the political world. 2023, “All About Love,” Pat’s ninth book to publish. Each poem contains the word “love” somewhere in the body of the poem. 2024, “Holiday Celebrations and Much More,” Pat’s tenth book to publish. These are poems Pat wrote over the years from the early nineteen-eighties about most Christmas’s, Easter, Halloween, Forth of July, Valentine and poems written about most New Years throughout all of those years. There are also pictures depicting some of those holidays. Pat was born in Texas and raised during the 1930’s depression era. Those were difficult times, for most, in those depression days. In Pat’s families home there was no electricity, indoor plumbing or running water. Most family’s had an “outhouse” out behind the house. Although her family had little “food wise” when Hobo’s, (as they were referred to back then,) came knocking on the back door, her mother always found a bit of food for them. There was no way to know how they got there, or where they were going. It was some distance between homes. During World War II Pat’s family moved to California. Pat was fourteen. She immediately found a job at a cake and cookie factory. She attended school four hours a day, working four hours a day, Saturdays, holidays and summers. Pat graduated high school at age sixteen. There was no money for college. In those days people understood if you wanted anything monetarily in life you must work for it. There was no “free lunch.” Pat worked over sixty-four years of her life at various jobs such as office work, statistical typist, modeling in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. Pat worked over fifty-one years in the real estate profession. Pat obtained her broker’s license in 1964. Starting with nothing but hard work, some knowledge and “OPM” (It’s called Other People’s Money) borrowing on one property to purchase another, over time Pat was able to acquire twenty-eight rental units. However, in the nineteen-nineties, because of the real estate downturn in California, Pat lost it all. She got “upside down” in her properties, owing more than they were worth. Few properties were selling in that downturn. At that point in her life it was too late to start over. Pat’s articles and poems were used through the years by her Board of Realtors. They were published in the RealToro Magazine, SACAR Realtor Guide, and SACBOR Today, real estate publications. Pat holds the unique distinction of being the only member of her real estate board to be honored “Miss Realtor” in a contest in 1960. Pat began writing poems about forty-five years ago when poems just started coming into her head. She has written over eighteen hundred poems. Pat enjoys writing “personalized poems” about lives of different individuals, poems for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, sympathy, holidays, political poems, and special events. Pat has had around forty of her poems read at funeral and memorial services. It brings her joy to use her “gift,” God/Holy Spirit, has given her to inspire others. Pat has written poems for and about a governor, a U. S. Senator, four U. S. Congressmen, and two Georgia Representatives. Pat has received “thank you” responses for her poems from the Queen of England, four U. S. Presidents, two-First Ladies, the owner of a large department store, and many others. Some of those cards and letters are in Pat’s second book “Poems For Conservatives.” Pat is a member of the Church of Christ. She was baptized at age eleven. Pat’s books can be found on amazon.com/author/patmorrelldonnelly www.pattispersonalizedpoetry.com