BELLE GLADE — Jennifer Alexander, a Palm Beach County School District bus attendant has written and published her second book of Christian poetry. Alexander was born and raised in Belle Glade. For the last five years or so, she has worked with children with special needs, helping with wheel chairs and any other things the children need help with. These children are special to Alexander, because she has a special need of her own, she said. She was diagnosed as a young adult with schizophrenia, and although now, no one would even guess she had the disorder, it was a real struggle when she was younger. She feels it gives her a deeper understanding of what some of the children go through every day. “I play a caregiver role on the bus.”

Alexander began writing poetry in middle school when a teacher gave her class an assignment. She found she actually enjoyed it. “It’s the rhythm of it,” she said. “It’s also knowing it’s not just for my ears or my eyes, but I can share with other people, whether it’s about Christianity or life itself. It’s rare to find these days, because so many people are stuck on novels and magazines and watching TV. You kind of forget poetry is still alive.”

Most of what she writes now is about her journey with Christianity. That is what impacts her the most lately, she explained. “I’ve been through so much since I got saved, the struggles, the ups, the downs. I even try to incorporate some of the feelings about my diagnosis of schizophrenia as well. I want people to know it does not matter your diagnosis. It matters what you do about the situation. You can let your diagnosis be a weakness, or you can make it be your strength.”

Alexander became a Christian in 2013. She had been going through a difficult time in her life and turned to God, she said. “Right away, God showed me what he could do to turn my life around.”

Alexander’s e-book, Carrying a Dead Man’s Weight, is for sale on Amazon for $10. The poems in the second book, We Are Legion, are all sonnets, but in her first book, she included a variety of forms.