The Story Of “Silent Voices”

Dear Readers,

Today I want to tell you the story of my book of poetry, “Silent Voices.”

It was 1975, the year before the Bicentennial Anniversary of the founding of the United States. I had received my Ph.D. degree from the University of Tulsa two years earlier in 1973. Instead of starting a university teaching career as I had planned, I had elected to stay at home and help Mother take care of my father who was dying of heart disease.

I did do some volunteer activities and one was to write and deliver public service announcements for a local non-profit organization. This particular afternoon I was going to tape a public service announcement, PSA, for the non-profit I was helping. I had an appointment to tape the PSA at 2 p.m. As I walked in the television studio, it was 2 p.m. exactly. I was thinking how much I wanted to please the Lord. As I walked through the studio door at 2 p.m., I asked the Lord to help me use English for His Good. The rest of the day was very normal.

I went to bed at the normal time and fell asleep quickly. At 2 a.m., I awakened with a start. I realized I was hearing a Voice speak to me. The Voice was saying something to me. I got out of bed and got a pen and paper from the desk that was near my bed. I wrote down every word. The Voice had spoken the words of a poem to me. I put the transcribed manuscript on my desk and went back to bed and fell asleep as if nothing unusual had just happened to me.

The next morning I awakened and found the sheet of paper with the poem on it. Then I recalled what had happened last night at 2 a.m., twelve hours after I had promised to use English for God’s Good. The rest of the day was quite normal. That night I went to bed as usual. At 2 a.m. I awakened with a start. I heard the same Voice speaking to me. The Voice was saying another poem to me. I got up and transcribed the new poem and then went back to bed and fell asleep. This happened to me exactly at 2 a.m. every day for 34 days. After a month of this experience, I did a terrible thing. I asked the Lord to give me the rest of the poems in the daytime. He did! The next 6 days I received the remaining poems during the day!

I didn’t know what to do with the poems, so I just kept rereading them. One evening Mother walked past my bedroom door and saw me reading the poems. She asked me what I was doing. I showed her the poems and she showed them to my father. He said he wanted them to be published. We had them published and they have been in print ever since.

Tomorrow I shall share one of the poems with you, Dear Readers!

Until then, I remain, with love, your friend Hope