Letters From The Front: Poems in Trauma Recovery

Letters From The Front is a collection of 32 poems that takes the reader from the first days of trauma recovery to the victories of regaining balance and sense of self. As the poems progress, healing progresses and is more complete with each finished stanza. Letters From The Front is a journey from the darkness of traumatic struggle, through the stages of realization and processing, and to into the light of recovery and self-compassion.

Woefully little research has been done about the effects of complex trauma (CPTSD) and even less information flows forth from people in the thick of the fight. By publishing this book, the author hopes to inspire and inform, pulling back the curtains on battles often waged alone in the dark, hidden from stigma and shame.

Touching on themes of surviving religious trauma, deconstruction, abuse, loss, grief, chronic illness, anorexia, anxiety, depression, and myriad other struggles related to CPTSD, this book shows readers that relief exists if they will only face their demons and keep up the fight. Progress with the author through her darkest moments into the glimmer of brighter days ahead.

Letters From The Front was written to remind anyone who struggles that they are not alone and that they should never ever give up. The fight can and will be won.

“If we all tried to make other people’s paths easy, our own feet would have a smooth, even place to walk on.” - Myrtle Reed

Beck Duffield is a lot.Wife, mother, educator, business owner, vocalist, author, poet, and political activist, Beck Duffield J.D., LL.M believes it is incumbent upon poets to speak the uncomfortable truths most people find difficult to articulate. The ethos of Beck's poetry is the authentic exposure of messy emotional regulation and the organization of higher thought. Thereby, having witnessed these sloppy moments, those readers in the thick of their own battles will stop judging themselves and feel less alone. Beck is hoping that her work will give readers the strength and clear vision to evaluate their own spheres of influence. Stay safe out there, friends. Keep fighting the good fight.

Christopher Duffield is an illustrator and world builder with over three decades of experience. His doodle-style pencil drawings grace the covers of books and the corners of love letters with the magic of soulful simplicity.