Second Chances
Poetry from a Sun-Kissed Life
by Ayala Zarfjian
WINNER of the 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in POETRY
In this beautiful collection, love is a healing sanctuary. The Tree of Life lives in Ayala’s poetry; it inhales and exhales out of the printed page. Second Chances is a tribute to the power of memory, family, and love for transformation, healing, and survival.
Second Chances creates meaning and purpose out of a chaotic and cruel world. These poems tell the story of becoming a Mother and understanding forgiveness, redemption, and love at a deeper level. These poems witness a legacy of blood, a family history, where the intimate becomes universal. Ayala masterfully connects the threads through time and space to serve as the bridge between the old world and the new world. She captures moments, life, breath, into her words to savor them, making them last, and takes nothing for granted. A tender and wise testament of the evolution of a young girl to a woman through her journey of vulnerability and resiliency.
“A celebration of the intricacies of life. Above all else, this is a poetry collection on our shared humanity. It is a celebration of life, both the beauty and tragedy it holds. Ayala's words breathtaking and true, haunting and vivid.”
—CORINNE CUNNINGHAM
“This collection is one of the most inspiring collections of poetry I have ever read. True to the heart and life’s experiences, it left me feeling both rejuvenated and encouraged about life and the human spirit. I look forward to more books by this amazing poet!”
—C. L. VAN HORN
AYALA ZARFJIAN, an Israeli-born American poet, is a mother, grandmother, survivor, and a lover of life. When Ayala is not writing or designing jewelry, she loves to spend time with her boys. Her other passions are traveling, deep-sea fishing with her husband, meditating, reading, and art. Her poems have been published online and anthologized in Chiaroscuro, Darkness and Light: Voices from poets - dVerse Anthology (2017) and Poetry as a Spiritual Practice: Illuminating the Awakened Woman (2016). She resides with her family in Plantation, Florida, and blogs at “A Sun Kissed Life.”