Award-winning poet and nonfiction author Wanda W. Jerome has been channeling spiritual messages in fixed and free poetry and prose since 2022. Her newest memoir in verse, After the Journey: Returning the Heart to Home (The Journey Book Series 2, September 2025), bids readers to “experience her heartful transition back from a spiritual journey to her home place.” Look for Wanda on her website Awakeful.life and on Youtube at @MagicalMorningMoments and @Awakeful. Her books are available on her Amazon author page.

Why did you write After the Journey, and what do you hope readers will take away from it?
After the Journey is the second memoir in verse of my Journey Book Series. I wrote this book to share with readers the continuation and final portion of my spiritual awakening journey. Coming back down to Earth after such a profound experience was more difficult than I’d imagined.

The beauty of our natural environment here in New Mexico provides the foundation for my experience across the series. The desert with its flora and fauna influence my soul’s expression in both poetry and prose. I hope readers will resonate with the natural world I call home. In this book, I eventually settle into manifesting my soul’s purpose for the remainder of my lifetime. I desire to leave readers with a strong sense of hope and faith in their capacity to choose a bountiful, beautiful lifetime while they’re here, and through my writing, I want to help readers build that capacity.

How is the book structured?
The book begins with my return to homeplace — to a normal life. The second section revisits the darkness and confusion associated with living partly in Heaven on Earth and partly in the darkness, struggling to cope with the chaos and destruction in our world. The third section brings me full circle — finding the light in the darkness, learning both are important and necessary for a fulfilling human life on Earth.

Is there one poem from the book that gets to the heart of the whole?
Yes. Here is a poem and piece of prose that touch the entire vision for the series:

WATER ON STONES (Haibun)

Moist desert air from last night’s storms floats,
hovers over steep mountain pathways. I see
distant highways to heavenly places, tucked
behind mists cascading into deepest green.

In their midst, I feel drops of liquid gold effervesce;
leave tiny sand patterns of water on stones. Ah, ah,
breathe deep. Take your deepest yet. Fill hungry
lungs with the rarest of these morning breezes.

Hear the birds sing for their pure joy. For your joy!
Revel in this moment. Before it disappears, escapes,
evaporates – back to where it started from, where it
was born – high in your desert mountains.

What a scene! Quick! Feel your each and every
sensation! Savor the tender nature of your life, your
tendermost dream – so timely, temporary, temporally.
Like water on desert stones.

let this place, this peace
rest in your happy heartspace
and never forget

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

I never knew, until it was time for me to know, the perfect
nature of God’s love.

I’d heard people talk about an all-knowing, all-forgiving,
all-encompassing love for years but had no vision of what
it was or what it could possibly truly feel like. Until it did.

Well, it shimmers.
It envelops your soul in shivers of joy and happiness.
You aren’t hungry or thirsty.
You have no needs.
You are totally perfect.
You are in bliss.

And, no – this isn’t alcohol. This isn’t mind-altering drugs.
This is real – Reality with a capital R.

So, how can a person live and walk in this work-a-day
world and know these feelings, think these thoughts, and
behave accordingly?

Try as I might, mere mortal words fail me here, but in a
sincere attempt to convey what it feels like to know God’s
love personally and deeply, I’ll try.

I’ve learned in my seventy plus years of living that
forgiveness is the only way to go home. Forgiveness
removes the veil that separates us from each other.

And, when we forgive ourselves, love touches our souls
and lets itself in. After that, it grows and grows.

I believe this is our work, our service to humanity:

… to forgive the unforgivable,
… to love the unlovable,
… to embrace the unembraceable,
… to hold the unholdable,
… to see the unseeable,
… to know the unknowable, and then,
… to let it all go.

So, let God move through you, give through you to heal
humanity as part of the Divine’s plan. It’s not that hard to
understand once you know.

That’s why I thought I’d help lift the veil for you a little, so
you could take a peek at what’s in store. All you’ve got to
do – is to want to – more than anything else in the whole wide
world. And there’s nothing more than that to where it’s at.

How many poems did you write specifically for After the Journey and how many were already written?
My journey from retirement through Covid-19 and sobriety has enabled my writings to flourish. Most of these poems were written after the first book, Journey Beyond the Veil, was published in 2024, though a few were kept out of the first book to keep the length in check. As my poems and prose are almost always channeled messages I receive during morning meditation, they kept coming as I was completing the first book’s publication. So six months after the first book was for sale online, I started compiling this second book, which was published in 2025. There are over 200 poems and prose pieces in this book.

Tell us how the book came together.
September 2025 was publication month for After the Journey. It took ten months to finish the content, organize, edit, design, and publish the book. My dear friend Jasmine Tritten once again gave me permission to use her image of the hand-painted mask for the cover, and my husband Ric Speed digitized various colorful masks based on that image for artwork throughout the book. Importantly, this book required more time for detailed formatting due to my increased use of visual poetry. I discovered that certain software I’d come to depend upon with my earlier books did not accommodate such formatting. Nevertheless, I was pleased with the result — eventually.

Did you ever worry you were revealing too much about yourself through your writing?
This is an interesting and important question. I did reveal quite a lot to help my readers see where I came from and where I ended up. Fortunately, I am not afraid or embarrassed about anything I have done in this lifetime, though I know there were many times I could have been a more loving person (including of myself) along the way. As a recovering, grateful alcoholic, I am used to sharing deeply personal information in my A.A. meeting groups with other women, and so I understood that I needed my readers to know who was sharing her story. Growing up and being alone a lot, plus traveling abroad during my adulthood as a flight attendant and singer-songwriter/musician on the road, made for quite the ride.

What was the most rewarding aspect of completing this project?
My soul’s purpose is to share these channeled poems and prose pieces in order to help others see that Heaven can be here on Earth if they choose. This is a hard place, this Earth School, and to learn that love is why we are here, what we are a part of, and to whom we will be returning — to share this with others is my mission. This is the most rewarding aspect of my work on the Journey Series project.

When you began the first book in the series, Journey Beyond the Veil: Awakening the Heart to Love, did you plan on writing After the Journey: Returning the Heart to Home?
Not at first. But it became clear that the messages were continuing, life was getting more challenging, and the poems and prose would want another book.

Looking back to the beginning of your writing/publishing career, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
I wish I’d understood that by self-publishing my work, I can submit few, if any, poems I’ve already published to traditional publishers, literary journals, and contests. This was news to me, and I imagine it may be news to other emerging author-publishers. Recently, I purchased a major literary magazine known for its multitude of contests and writing retreats and was shocked that the opportunities listed for submissions included the words “accepting unpublished work only.” In addition, many require fees for submission, though the fees are minimal.

The good news is it does seem that opportunities for small independent presses are expanding and this is extremely hopeful for emerging writers. Also, a number of organizations offer awards contests, recognition and reviews for independent publishers and author-publishers. More every day are reaching out to those of us who self-publish. After the Journey has received recognition recently from Literary Global and some lovely reviews from Reader Views. One caveat is that these organizations often require substantial fees along with submissions. From my experience, it’s best to be selective in your choosing. Do research before submitting your work, and consider these efforts as part of the marketing strategy for your work.

Do you remember what inspired you to write your first poem?
My first real poem was about the view I could see out the airplane windows at night when all the passengers were asleep. Back in the 1970s, there were usually empty seats in first class, and I could snuggle up by the windows and see the lights sparkle across a beautiful world. No fences, no state lines — just our beautiful planet. As a 19-year-old flight attendant for an international airline, I discovered many people, places, and things to write poems about. That’s when my writing really took off!

What do you consider the most essential elements of a well-written memoir? A well-written poem?
For me, I think the essential element of memoir and poetry is to speak from your heart directly to the heart of your reader. To share enough of yourself that your reader finds a commonality to attach onto with their own heart and mind. Let them find themselves in your words.

How important is accessibility of meaning? Should a reader have to work to understand a poem?
Great question! I’m not sure about most readers, but I am basically bored if I can’t find anything to relate to in a poem. Some poetry seems like the rambling of a mind to whom I cannot relate. So, I guess, yes — for me to enjoy a poem (whether haiku, tanka, fixed or free), I must find something to which I can relate. If I learn something about myself in the process, I am fulfilled.

Is there something that always inspires you or triggers your creativity?
Our nature in New Mexico. Our delicious sunrises. Majestic mountains. Owls, geese, cranes, hawks, crows and ravens, songbirds, quail, roadrunners, cottontail bunnies, coyotes, dragonflies, bees, butterflies — our spring winds, dry summer heat, golden fall colors, blustery winter snows. We live in this most beautiful place. Let’s share it as often as we can with others who for whatever reasons don’t or can’t live here.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I have a large library of poetry waiting for a three-book series (smaller books in scope, possibly 100 poems each) all about hope. Faith in ourselves, in others and the future figure prominently, too. The title I’m considering is something like “Hope for a Hopeless World” — but I would rather not self-publish this time. My goal is to find a great New Mexico INDIE publisher who wants to work with me to get these books out to readers who need the messages they share.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I believe poetry does not have to be stuffy, rigid, or scary. Poetry can be enticing, practical, expansive, purposeful, and meaningful in many different forms, including its formlessness. I am especially excited about visual poetry — using the white space on the page to inform how words are read and which ones to which the reader’s eyes are drawn. The year 2026 is a wonderful time for poets! So many rules and requirements are flexing. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for poetry.

To me, poetry is the language of the heart. My sense is we need more of that these days.

KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.