Pilgrimage to Self

About the Book

The forty-five poems in this volume are about leaving the familiar, walking into a new landscape, and returning to find that the old neighborhood we left behind appears to be the same, but how we see it will never be. And that, changes everything. Three years ago, I walked the French countryside from Paris to Chartres. I was leaving and returning at the same time, leaving my current home to return to my ancestral roots. It was with great excitement that I embarked on this adventure. I would be walking in the authentic ways of the generations that preceded me. Knowing there was more this journey still had to reveal, I signed up for another week of walking in France in May 2009. Under the weight of my backpack, more serious lessons shed light on who I was, who I was not, and who I might become. A shift was occurring in both my body and my inner spiritual terrain, and there was nothing I could do to alter its´ momentum. Change happens. The experiences of both pilgrimages ultimately led me back to myself. This book is poetry from the path...my actual walking experiences and the lessons that life had in store for me.

About the Author

Wendi Romero is a lover of nature, travel, art, and photography. She grew up in Southwest Louisiana, where the culture is still predominantly French. She is a graduate of McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., where she further developed her craft of poetry writing under the tutelage of renowned poet, art critic, and photography historian, Dr. John Wood. Her first poem was published in 2008 in LISTEN, a publication for Spiritual Directors International. This is the poet’s first compilation of her work. She and her husband live near Grand Coteau, La. Photo by B. Broussard