We Who Battle Demons

The struggle is real. It has purpose. You are not alone. From cities far and wide, people in recovery have sent Roger A. emails thanking him for his meditation-inspiring sonnets. Here, from some of these emails, are the words of people struggling and recovering. We've identified their hometowns but withheld individual names, to honor the recovering person's anonymity.

"This [sonnet "Defining Moment"] so poignantly dispels the troubles some of us have with the concept of God, especially with goofy religious childhoods to reconcile. I need to share this with a couple of my friends. Thank you." --Kansas City

"Your poems [of recovery] are sustaining gifts. Thank you." --Seattle

"Such a graceful poem." --Toronto (regarding "How She Danced"

"I never heard by personal heartache described as perfectly as "When I Refuse to Pray," just to name one of the poems that described my innermost struggles. I read almost all of your words in a sense of shock and relief: shock that your words so perfectly match my most inner and private feelings and demons ... and then relief that I am not alone." --Little Rock

"I've been using you as an example ... a young man in the rehab is probably a poet ... I printed out a bunch of your recovery related works and gave them to him." --New York City

"Thank you for writing ['We Who Battle Demons']; I love it, and if it's okay, I'll share it with others." --Little Rock

"Roger A. writes poetry of often breathtaking power, sometimes on matters relating to addiction and recovery about which he knows a thing or two." --One Day at A Time, a recovery newspaper, Little Rock, AR