Nursing Associate Manaie Buchanan broke down and cried the first time she read her poetry to people at the senior citizen facility where she works.

“The poetry was deeply personal and came from the heart,” she said.

At first she was embarrassed but people at Lefroy House in Sandys were impressed and urged her to find a publisher.

Mrs Buchanan took their advice and has just released her first book, ‘The Kiss of Poetry’, through publishing house PublishAmerica. It contains 27 poems with pictures and each poem touches on a part of life. Through her work, she reaches out to her readers with words of strength.

She was first inspired to write poetry while living in Jamaica in the 1990s.

“I moved there with my first husband,” she said. “We had always talked about living on a farm. I started writing poetry because, living on a farm away from the hustle and bustle, I had lots of time to myself.”

As she was writing, it sometimes felt like the poetry came right out of her heart.

“I was writing about my personal feelings and the things I went through,” she said. “It is very hard to say which poem means the most to me. Every last one of them is a part of me.”

While living in Jamaica she responded to an advertisement and entered a contest organised by the National Library of Poetry in Owing Mills, Maryland in the United States. Two of her poems, ‘Cycle of Life’ and ‘Human Race’, were selected for a poetry anthology and one won a merit award. Unfortunately, she was unable to attend the awards symposium organised by the National Library of Poetry. They also nominated her for Poet of the Year in 2000 and 2001.

“They kept asking me to come to the symposium, though,” she said.

When she eventually returned to Bermuda she put her poems away for a time.

“After reading my poems at Lefroy House, I went online looking for a free publisher as I didn’t have the money to pay for a book to be published,” she said. “I found PublishAmerica.”

PublishAmerica works with 50,000 writers. It claims to be a traditional publishing company whose primary goal is to encourage and promote the works of new, previously undiscovered writers. Like mainstream publishers, PublishAmerica pays its authors advances and royalties and makes its books available through all bookstores. It bills itself as a “distinctly personal, supportive alternative to vanity presses and less accessible publishers”.

PublishAmerica expressed interest in the ‘Kiss of Poetry’ and asked her to send the manuscript for consideration. The ‘Kiss of Poetry’ is now available on Amazon.com.

“They pay royalties,” said Mrs Buchanan. “They sent me information to open an account between us. They said I am the first Bermudian they have ever published. As yet, the book is not available in Bermuda, only on the web. They said they would take the book worldwide though.”

Mrs Buchanan said her next book will be about a different passion: herbs. She is a certified herbalist and studied herbal science in England.

“Poetry and herbs are my two loves,” she said. “My grandmother, Florence Smith, had Native American heritage. She used to grow a lot of herbs around her house and tell me about them. I never liked to take any type of medicine anyway; I have always turned to herbs. When I studied herbal science in England, the teachers were surprised at the high grades I got. They thought I would be fresh, but I was very much into the herbs. I already knew a lot, through my grandmother.”

One of the poems in her book, ‘Grandmother’s Cooking’, celebrates her late grandmother.

“I think 2014 will be the year I put together an herbal book,” she said. “It will have old time remedies of Bermuda and other places. It will have different little things.”

‘Kiss of Poetry’ can be found on Amazon.com by typing the author’s name in the search engine.