Western-Star.com

Cheri Henderson wasn’t born a poet — but after being born again, she became one.

Now the Waynesville poet’s work is part of a book, Divine Stories of the Yahweh Sisterhood, which is available at Family Christian Bookstores nationwide.

In the spring of 1983, Cheri and her husband Tim began attending a Friday night prayer meeting with her parents.

“Up to that time, my Friday nights were spent partying bars,” Cheri said.

It only took a couple of the meetings to convince Cheri her life needed a change. Cheri became a Christian, and a week later — at the age of 28 — she wrote her first poem since she was six years old.

“It was a poem about how lost I was and how Jesus had changed my life,” Cheri said. “I still use that poem a lot when I speak to Christian groups.”

The poetry didn’t stop there.

In the past 23 years, Cheri has written more than 200 poems and about 20 inspirational articles.

Along the way, she found an audience for her work, too.

Cheri published her first poem in a Canadian Catholic magazine in 1984.

More publications followed — in Billy Graham’s Decision magazine, The Nazarene and Woman’s Touch magazine.

“Once it’s been published, it’s easier to get published,” Cheri said.

Five years ago, Cheri collected her poems, which she calls lyrics for the Lord, on a Web site. She joined a Christian writers group on the Internet and eventually made contact with Michelle Medlock-Adams and Gena Maselli, who were working on a collection of writings about women’s relationships with each other and with God.

Cheri submitted five poems and two were selected for the book, The Piano Lesson, about the joy of watching her niece grow up, and Goodbye for Now, about her sorrow at her grandmother’s death and her anticipation of seeing her again in Heaven.

Cheri hopes to write and illustrate her own book next.

“I really believe it’s a gift from the Lord,” Cheri said about her poetry.

Contact Daniel Wells at (513) 696-4527 or dwells@coxohio.com