Storm is Coming: A Collection of Poems by Madison Smith

AGE DOES NOT MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING.

Madison Smith, a young author from Chester County, Pennsylvania, publishes her first book at age 17.

Madison was first introduced to acrostic poetry as a first grader in elementary school. In third grade, Madison's teacher, Mrs. Cloutman, read to the class selections from The Giving Tree (by Shel Silverstein) a story of a boy who asks a loving tree to give him everything. It was then Madison remembers discovering stories didn't have to be literal or make complete sense but could still made you think deeply and each reader could walk away feeling or having a different experience.

The meaning of a poem is the message the poet gives to the reader. Madison credits The Giving Tree with 'giving' her the inspiration to start writing her own poems at age eight. Poetry quickly became a creative outlet to express her thoughts and feelings across a number of subjects and perspectives.

The author's literary debut, Storm is Coming, chronicles her life over nearly a decade in this clever collection of poems. Peer into the young author's naive, unadulterated psyche and her journey through adolescence as she painstakingly reconciles life's realties turn out to be far different than those she innocently ideated as a child.

Like The Giving Tree, the author's poems embody her struggles and experiences throughout her life in a way that didn't have to make complete sense but provided a psychological relief by penning her expressions and emotions, a process she found physically cathartic.