ST. GEORGE — A Southern Utah author wants to remind people, “We are not alone, even if we may feel we are.”
Kareli Loeza recently published “As Fiery as the Sun, as Moody as the Moon,” a collection of poems that can uplift and comfort its readers.
Loeza currently lives in Cedar City and enjoys visiting her family in St. George. But that wasn’t always the case.
“When I first started writing, it was just an outlet for me to unleash all I felt inside. I was stuck in such a dark place mentally and emotionally,” Loeza said. “I felt as if I was dragging my feet through mud. I wanted that to show in my writing.'”
She wanted to have the reader feel that darkness was seeping through every word. Then, along the way, the universe had a remarkable new journey waiting for her. Loeza said she began healing herself once she accepted this new direction in her life.
“Slowly, I began to feel other colors and from the mud I was buried in I started to bloom like the lotus flower I was always meant to be,” Loeza said.
She feels the book will appeal to a broad audience as her poems focus on many different issues. And the book is written so that one doesn’t have to read it in any order.
“You can open it up to a page that will help you for that day or week, or maybe, you were called to page 32. And then page 32 is something about family or breaking chains or self-love,” Loeza said. “It’s so beautiful because every poem can be applied to different types of relationships and different types of scenarios.”
The journey for Loeza came after she graduated from Pine View High School, attended Dixie Tech, moved to Phoenix, AZ and worked in the medical field. At one point, she went into a depression and felt stuck in a very dark place mentally and emotionally. Loeza felt as if she was dragging her feet through mud.
Then she found a counselor to help her process her childhood. She hopes her book will encourage others to reach out for help. Loeza said she didn’t have the opportunity to have counseling when she was growing up. Loeza left Southern Utah because she had family trauma. And she had never taken the time to focus on healing. Her solution was to move away.
“The generation before us, bless them, they did the best that they could with what they had, and it was not common for you to talk about what you felt or what you needed or what you even went through,” Loeza said.
Loeza said many people today still don’t attend counseling due to fear, shame, or they don’t think that it’ll help them. She hopes her book will encourage others to reach out for help.
“Truly, truly everybody could benefit from a therapy session. Like anybody, even if you feel like you haven’t gone through a lot and especially if you’ve gone through a lot,” Loeza said. “It is such a helpful tool to speak your trauma into existence.”
Loeza said everyone could rise from the darkness and heal. Not everyone’s path is the same to heal. But she hopes when the load of the world starts to get heavy, by reading her book, one can transport oneself into another world.
“A world where you can find some comfort in knowing you are not alone. Even in your darkest moments, even on your worst days, someone else out there begs the stars just as you are,” Loeza said. “Help yourself to the sensations each entry brings you. Leave behind the worry of tomorrow if only for a moment.”
Loeza is grateful she has returned to her roots and has found a wonderful partner. She and her husband are the proud parents of a two year old son. She said she is grateful to spend time with her family and friends in Southern Utah. She noted remembering to be thankful for all she has brought her joy.
“This book is dedicated and written for everybody right now who is struggling with mental health and self-love. I know that it will bring light and joy into their lives,” Loeza said.
She said this book is timely, especially with the increase in suicidal thoughts during the recent COVID pandemic. Loeza wrote the poems for everyone who has those kinds of thoughts to know that they are not alone.
“We are all in this together and everybody is begging the stars for really the same thing. We are not alone,” Loeza said.
Loeza said her publishing team at Fulton Books coordinated the book’s release on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and ebook platforms like Kindle and ITunes. She plans on writing more books.
The book is also available inside Barnes and Noble in the Red Cliffs Mall.
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