by AD Sifford
Ignite directly follows Emerge, written the next year, in 2011. Whereas Emerge was a school project that opened the door for me into a life of poetry, Ignite was my first few steps out that door. Ignite is a name I came up with later. I didn't plan on writing a collection, but rather began recording my new poems onto a Word document which ended up housing the 5 poems I pinned after the matter as the collection I'm now sharing. A Prodigal's Prayer was the first poem I'd ever written purely from my own internal desire to do so, with no other purpose or authority. One day while in prayer, The Spirit of God nudged me--with a pretty strong nudge--to put down my thoughts and soul down into lyrical form on a page, as He'd aided me to do a few times during the week of Emerge's conception, particularly as with Snare, The Living Fire, and Unwelcome Visitor. But this time there was no grade expected, just the reward of pure poetic expression. Beginning in May 2011, I continued to add to this small collection over the summer, resulting in 5 new original poems for my sprouting poetic library. I was freshly committing my life to God on a newly awakening mature level in the year of Emerge, and in this next stage I was writing through my struggle to truly step into a lifestyle freed by God's grace, by realizing that Grace in full, as He taught me to conquer the addiction to lust that held me. These five poems represent lessons in my life as God's child newly awakening to the whole realization of what that means. Though I've imagined concepts for it, I've never actually created a cover for this collection. © 2011 A.D. Sifford