About Vanessa
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Vanessa, a resident of the RTP area of North Carolina, has created over 100 personalized "Essence Poems" - memorable tributes for individuals from all walks of life. Her innovative work in this area includes themes of spirituality, love, and a focus on a person's innermost core. She has produced professional writings since 1978, including the Seven Laws of Laughter, which helped bring more humor into people's lives.
In Fall of 2007, Vanessa released her first professional CD, entitled Poetic Essence by Vanessence, featuring 30 delightful poems which paint intuitive pictures of a variety of her friends. Read in the poet's deeply entertaining style, the message is enhanced by a soft relaxing background of meditative music. |
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Vanessa's talent has been developed by her upbringing in Brooklyn, NY and journeys across the U.S., having lived in and/or visited several states. Poetic Essence was inspired by the author's visit to her song writer friend's place in the Cherokee area of the NC Mountains.
Vanessa is available for poetic performances and customized Essence poetry-- for personal legacy keepsakes and memorable gifts for family and friends! |
Testimonials
I have had the privilege of both seeing and hearing Vanessa recite her poetry on several occasions. She is a joy to behold....her love of words and beauty shine through each presentation. However, she is more than a poet and wordsmith - she has the ability to know people and to capture their essence in her words. Vanessa is able to see the beauty of each individual and then amplifies that goodness. With her words she seems to paint the life theme of each person she writes about and present it with both brevity and incredible insight.
- Bill Turner, Minister Journeys, A Spiritual Community
After just meeting me once and speaking with a colleague about me, Vanessence was able to formulate a poetic tribute to my being. The rich and soothing definition was a perceptive tribute that not even an intimate friend could have conjured with such aplomb. Vanessence has a unique gift that makes the recipient luxuriate in her clairvoyant observations.
- Nancy A. Stolfo-Corti, Executive Vice President, AVLOG, LLC. www.av-log.com
It is with great pleasure that I share the talents and awe of Vanessa. Vanessa is truly a gifted spirit. She has a passion for truth and honors the essence in everyone. I was amazed at how Vanessa was able to identify and describe the essence of my life and my business through her beautiful poetry.
Thank you Vanessa!
- Marilyn Shannon, Dialogue, Inc AND ReEnchant Planet Earth
Reviews
Love and gratitude is the prevailing theme in Illusionary Heart: Peoms of Life and Love and Essence by poets Vanessa Vendola and Peggy Neuman. Vendola is a regular performer on the Open Mic circuit in Raleigh and Neuman is primarily a visual artist with a focus on the American Southwest. Illusionary Heart is illustrated by Brazilian Gisele Bes. A long time in the making, you can tell how joyous the authors' words are as they leap off of the page and connect with the surrounding poems. For instance, the hologram is the prevailing image in "Hologram" by Vendola and "Hologram Shoes" by Neuman. Their verse meshes well with each other, and Bes's illustrations complete the reader's expectations of discovering words of love, life and essence.
The book opens with three essence poems about the authors, with accompanying illustrations that are some of the best in the collection. Bes draws her female figures with sturdy legs, curvy hips and arms. These ink-women are grounded to the earth as they meditate, dream and create. Their legs are either dancing or walking and their arms are swinging to the sky, full of childlike joy.
Neuman's poems are longer and more imagistic than Vendola's, whose strengths lie in her compact essence poems, such as "Intimacy," a favorite of mine because it is personal and authentic:
Gradually and intentionally
I reach for you
As I am allowing my heart to open
For a softer and gentler experience
In an environment of 
Peace and Harmony
I set sail my mind and soul
While discovering my Passions and Goals
Expressing the joyfulness I feel within
In "The Sea" one of Neuman's stronger poems, the waves are "pure as white palominos/stampeding over me/trampling the pain without and within." The speaker is in pain and she's able to transmit this pain via her water images of tears, ocean, and baptism. Neuman is adept at handling the mixed message. In her poems the speaker may be sad, lonely and afraid, yet they all choose to look within and face their demons. Such is the case with "Alone."
I've come to Taos to look within
To listen in this vast lonely desert
To the voices that spurred my separating
to leave the past
...
I listened to that voice and I left
Even as this monstrous and menacing fear
settled overhead like a great black demon
that set my heart to stopping
...
Though at this moment
Aloneness is my state of being
It is the pathway to the growth
Into my wholeness
These three women have shared their talents and hearts with us in this inspiring collection. These artists had a vision and Illusionary Heartis their result. I'll close with these words from Vendola that show us what finding our own path is all about: "I am perfect the way I am/I do not ask for an okay from anyone/I am here in the now/There is no other place to be."
- Alice Osborne, Author and Illusionary Heart Reviewer
Barnes & Noble Book Reviews
Everyone needs a dose of "Illusionary Heart!"
Illusionary Heart" is an awakening. Authors Vanessa Vendola and Peggy Neuman's inspiring words offer reminders of life's most precious beauty marks: the light of a dawning day, the love between mother and child, the harmony of music and verse. Gisele Bes' playful illustrations compliment the book's gentle expressions. "Illusionary Heart" is accessible and relevant, allowing the reader to form an instant connection to its poems. Vendola and Neuman weave vignettes of love, joy, relationships and nature into a cadence that pulses from the pages into our own lives. The buoyancy of "Illusionary Heart" is contagious; you, too, will set down the book with a renewed lightness in spirit! This artistic trio has generously unlocked a portal from their hearts to ours.
- CPallone
This book 'Illusionary Heart' has touched my heart so deeply. The women that have created this beautiful book are a wonderful example of how we should all live today, with hearts wide open, vulnerable in our love and our feelings, and with joy for the simple truly valuable things. I love it and highly recommend it...
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nlburns, Raleigh
Click on the hearts to hear more poems recited by Vanessa!
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